All in a lifetime's work
by HappieHope
Summary: When I was too much for the world... Let me tell you my story. It's all I have left now. [Alternative Universe][Character offing][fairly Op OC and Oc insert]
1. Introduction

I had always been fascinated by the world around me; tales of people with unrivalled abilities. I was one of them, the legend in the stories that people would read and learn about. It's weird I started out the same way as everyone else in all honesty, I had to learn about the powers that laid within the Kage also what they did with it.

My favorite 'story' is when the two power houses, strongest people alive at the time, fought for something that they believed in. The First Hokage and his equal Madara Uchiha. They both wanted something so bad and when they clashed fists they must have felt like they belonged.

I didn't feel that anymore. I'm someone who could destroy everything if I wanted too. Obviously I don't, that would be pointless. I worked hard to get where I am... But was it worth it all?

I have isolated myself, no not because I'm an emotional wreck who feels it's the only way I'll live. I actually dislike it. It's boring, I did it because there's no way that power of this level needs to be roaming around; with the last time that happened there was the Great ninja war... for the fourth time. I suppose that this time it was for the better. The last thing I want is another war, too bothersome in all fairness.

Where I am now isn't all too bad, it's a nice little house in the middle of nowhere; kind of a cliché but I made sure it was on a mountain peak similar to a wise monk or sage. It isn't a palace or made out of gold, the traditional style of house is what I prefer. Maybe none of this really matters. Yet I've nothing to think about... Perhaps my early days would be more interesting. Yes. It might just be better than my life now.

Starting with a name: Zuko Ryu.


	2. First Friends

In the past a demonic creature had been unleashed on the village hidden in the leaves, terrorising the village and forcing the most powerful shinobi to fight against it... That day was scarring for the populous of the village, the effects staying for years after. The nine tails beast which was sealed into a particular person Naruto Uzumaki as all previous sacrifices for the nine tails being people in the Uzumaki clan, although this was less willing than the last two. An infant with no will, no clue has this burden of being a jinchūriki.

In the following year I was born; because of the huge amounts of families destroyed recently they had huge "Fox hunts" now while it implies they hunted the animal, that wasn't the case, the group of afflicted people be it civilian or otherwise banded together and went through the village and hunted for those who were 'fox lovers' which was the cover up so they could attack, kill, bully, extort all those who weren't affected by the kyuubi. My parent's were included in the one killed by the hunters. They would have killed me if not for the two prodigies of the Uchiha clan: Itachi and Shisui who heard the screams of my mother as she was beaten and cut, my father dead on the floor and I was on the floor watching not sure what I was seeing but the cries I emitted were nulled by the screams and then the sound of two shinobi killing the fox hunters.

I was taken to an orphanage and had lived there for a while. It was here when I first met the most unpredictable ninja, he had already been here for a year, when I got there they treated me indifferently to any other and gave me what I needed, they hadn't really cared for me in any capacity.

I was age 3 when we first properly met, Naruto had never been able to sleep near the rest of us but I had seen him in the garden often. I was very curious of him I knew of him being here but never usually saw him. Because we were children our communication wasn't the best. I wandered over to him staring "Who are you?" it was a simple question in any normal situation. Yet any situation with Naruto is not exactly normal.

He stared back in utter confusion looking around slightly in disbelief. "Me?"

"Yea, I never see you much."

"I'm Naruto I see you here too."

"That's cause I live here too, I'm Zuko."

We both had a few moments of silence before Naruto tried to speak again only to be abruptly cut off by some kids who came out to play "Hey why are you hanging out with that freak?" the one which seemed like the ringleader shouted at me, it was a confusing question cause I had no idea what he was refering to. Logically it was Naruto but I couldn't understand the nickname. Before any response could be given one of the underlings of the first kid had asked if I was the son of some demon lovers; the adults would often talk of some people in an ill manner this way, effecting the children and how they act. It was something that made me angry: not them asking questions, but what Naruto said next

"You should probably leave me alone, otherwise they'll be mean to you." Now I was angry mostly because I was so intrigued by Naruto that I wanted to continue to know more about him. In honesty he, at this point, was the closest I had to a friend.

"They can be mean all they want! I was having a talk with you." and that was my defiant answer. Also how me and Naruto became friends.


	3. Chakra is homely

The first time the concept of Chakra came to me was an accident; the best accident I'd had but nonetheless an accident.

Naruto and I would always hang out, almost never without the other. This wasn't exactly good for my reputation or anything but I hadn't really cared. When I was with my friend I couldn't be happier. Though people now had two targets to attack, which was what led to me accessing my chakra.

Whenever Naruto would be in danger of getting beaten by a group of people I would try stop them through trade; beat me not him. This rarely worked as I would end up sharing the beating rather than sparing Naruto from it. Even if I did stop them from hitting Naruto, he'd do the same right back as he couldn't stand his friend getting hit for his sake. The worst times were close to Naruto's birthday, the anniversary of those who had perished and so on. Being beaten to the point where you can't feel your thoughts is rather scary and that is exactly what happened. I was completely out of it. Though when I awoke I was in a endlessly white space, there were no senses available to me and after some time faint senses came back.

I could feel warmth lining my body but not yet spreading through; the sight was non existent and yet I could see myself, similar to a self aware dream; Sounds of silence that were inexplicably define. It was odd but I could feel that I wasn't going anywhere or that I wasn't stationery. There was no floor just space that seemed to be naturally assuring of me. Just when I was starting to form questions about the situation I came to.

Naruto had been able to flee while I stopped the herd of creatures called people from laying their tools of torture on him. By the time he had looked back at me I was out cold. Naruto had waited anxiously for the people to leave so he could retrieve my body and try to help me. The attackers weren't happy about losing their 'game' which is what led to the severity of their attacks. But Naruto wasn't stupid enough to run in when we would both end up unable to move. After the assault he had hauled me slightly back from the street, to try wake me without causing damage.

During that day one Kakashi Hatake was passing by the same area, he had seen the small Uzumaki and it pained him more than anything had done since the passing of his Sensei. He saw the similarities between the Yondaime Hokage and the fearful child next to the unconscious body. He was about to carry on and leave but the sight had too many resemblances. 'Obito, Minato-sensei.'

Kakashi jumped over to the young people while placing his ANBU mask on to conceal his identity. He picked the two up without a word and rushed to the Hokage tower. He appeared in the middle of the Hokage's office and interrupted a team giving a report. "Hokage-sama, I found these children in some trouble." Completely ignoring the others in the room, they had started to glare at the child who was still awake and he kept silent unsure of what was going on currently.

The Hokage had been taking a report from a gennin team's first C-Rank mission, they had to deliver a few supplies to the small camps of Shinobi that survey the outside of the village. They weren't impressed by the presence of the the interruption, but nonetheless the Hokage had shifted his attention to the genius holding the two orphans. "Inu... What happened, Team four, you are dismissed."

With the team gone Kakashi removed his mask and placed the two children on the sofa off to the side of the room and Naruto had finally got his bearings and spoke up "Where..." before finishing the question the Hokage answered him.

"You're in my office Naruto. Kakashi here brought you from the streets." The wise ninja let Kakashi tell him what had happened from his point of view.

"Well I had seen these two left behind as a group of people walked away, some smelling of blood and sweat, the sweat more explainable that the blood yet I believe the two to be connected." Kakashi was telling the Hokage this while he was listening attentively Naruto had turned to his friend. "I saw Uzumaki-san trying to wake his injured friend, and I had to take them to safety..." The Hokage looked at Kakashi knowingly and decided to speak up.

Clearing his throat after a few short seconds of silence "I think it would be best to have these two children emancipated and give them a place to live without any 'problems'. I'll assign someone I can trust to check up on them every month. With their own weekly income. I'm not proud that this is the only option I'm comfortable with." The conclusion was saddening to the adults but the elderly shinobi turned to the concerned child on the sofa and addressed him so he could start to make heads and tails of the situation "Naruto. You don't like it at the orphanage, do you?"

Naruto shook his head "No one there likes us..."

"Well how would you and your friend here to live in an apartment building where no one will harm you. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah. Um... Why did you help us?" This was mainly directed at Kakashi but the Hokage was included.

Kakashi crouched down next to Naruto before answering. "Because you looked like you needed some help. Nothing more, nothing less. It's always good to help those in need." The words were crafted to help Naruto be a good person and while it may not be the most effective, Kakashi wasn't the best social speaker.

Just before the Hokage started to speak I started to stir. Looking around the first thing that came to my mind was that Naruto is okay. I glanced at the two other people in the room and could start to sense this aura that rolled off them, this probably was because I was concentrating really hard but it was almost overwhelming, the one sat in the chair had the most energy, it felt like it was being held back and that was for the best. The other taller person had lots of energy as well, although there is no where near as much as the seated elder. When I looked at Naruto I could see some kind of energy, although it felt different, and sensed slightly different, I thought it was just due to him having less than the other two... Yet it wasn't too far off the tall man crouched next to us. "What happened?" It was the first question I thought I'd ask, knowing why I didn't die is slightly more important than where, besides I could see glimpses of the Hokage stone faces.

They had told me all the information about living arrangements and that we would be paid small amounts each week. despite the clarity of the situation I still had one question. "Why can I see this aura of energy radiating off of you three?" This question left them slightly confused, it wasn't really related sure, but I felt that these people of all those in the village could answer it.

The Hokage's face lifted, chuckling slightly he responded "It seems you awoken your chakra today, you can sense our chakras." Seeing my confusion he carried on "Chakra is the energy within every living soul, It comes in physical form and spiritual form, some people can sense these chakra signatures as they are unique to each person. You're using your chakra to identify ours. It's a very useful technique for shinobi to have." As those words left his mouth in the informative fashion both me and Naruto sat in awe and Naruto turned to me and started exclaiming how that was the best thing in the world. I know that it's not something we were expecting to hear, the best thing that day for me was getting away from that orphanage.

Kakashi took us to our apartment complex and it was better than the orphanage, there were at least 30 apartments in total, but we were still kids; we took the two at the very top and the apartment had a kitchen which was open plan with the rest of the first room, then a small hall with a bathroom on one side and two bedrooms on the other.

Once we had our small amount of belongings put into each of our apartments we Naruto and I had sat outside the building on the roof and were trying to take in all the events of today, the red scattering across the land and the glow being our last light left as we heard a voice behind us "Naruto-kun, Zuko-kun, I brought you some food and I have been thinking." It was the Hokage and he paused so we could give him our full attention. "You both have had a long day and tomorrow I'll have someone take you shopping. Now get some rest, you need it, especially you Zuko. You should be in hospital, but I trust you when you said that you don't get treated well there. Keep rested for awhile. Goodnight you two." And with that he vanished, we were finally out of the orphanage and I had learnt that I awoke my Chakra. Today was better than it was bad.


	4. Academy Sure we'll go

The Ninja Academy was the place that bread new shinobi for the village hidden in the leaves. When Naruto and I were told about this we were excited... But when we were told we would be attending we were ecstatic. The Hokage had told us when Naruto turned Six; everything that we needed to know about the academy and that as it started next week we could start with the rest of the ninja wannabes, that there were lots of clan heirs that would be attending in our class too. To celebrate we had decided to buy practice equipment and some books to help us with our studies.

Although buying these items needed the aid of the person who checked up on mainly Naruto but made sure I was alright too. Anyways, one Iruka umino had came to our apartments each month and made sure nothing was wrong. I was confused at first, when I was told that I could sense chakra of people I started to look at as many as possible but Iruka had a smaller amount than Naruto did, which I thought was odd, he wore a chunin outfit, so he was a ninja. just wasn't too huge on chakra. At first Iruka had tried to make visits brief as possible, I could tell that while he wouldn't hurt us he didn't exactly want to be around too long. Though with time he came to actually make sure we went out every once in awhile, even to his favourite restaurant: Ichiraku Ramen. Which incidentally became Naruto's favourite also.

I also had bought Naruto some plants to gardening, he said he found nature to be calming and enjoyable and he needed some type of distraction.

Iruka had failed to tell us anything about his ninja life, whether it was because he was embarrassed or because he was stubborn about not telling stories. But when Iruka had a knowing smirk when getting academy supplies I was weary of why. I'd soon find out that he was a pure mastermind.

During the week I had studied as much as possible, the effort one had to put in to be a shinobi was quite tremendous, they had condensed the academy down to four years but that was a result of tension and war, also the tailed beast assault made them keep the standards and not change it.

Since the Hokage had entered Naruto's life he had looked up to him and declared that he wanted to be the Hokage one day, the people who heard him say it thought he was being disrespectful to the village and the title of kage even though this was not the case. He really wanted to go to the academy, have people notice him and believe in his ability to do what he set his mind to.

The night before we went to the academy was when we decided that we would practice our social skills... It was odd in concept but neither of us had good memories with people our age, and Naruto had this natural skill to be able to talk to anyone and have no problem, it was me who had the problem. Naruto tried to give me pointers and advise that he deemed useful such as 'Just talk, be you, ya know?' Which didn't really help me but I was thankful and it reminded me that Naruto would be there and he is quite the attention magnet... It could be his bright features or his way of communication which was rather expressive. Even if my social lesson hadn't progressed too much I was excited to be starting my journey as a budding shinobi.

The first thing I noticed that morning was this blond blur which was shaking me without remorse "Naruto? isn't it too early... for anything?" I usually wouldn't reply in a lazy manner, but it was just one of those mornings. At least I thought it was until I was told what day it was.

"Not when it's the first day at the academy!" and those last five words sent me into a excitement filled rush to get changed and prepare for the first day, all while Naruto made some ramen for us both. Usually I would reject ramen for breakfast but I was too ready for the day to reject. We finished the food and started on our walk to the academy, the Hokage had been waiting at the gate of the academy and welcomed us, he had said that all paperwork that had to be done was except that we had to sign saying that we would like to enrol.

The academy was fairly big both in the building and surrounding areas which belonged to the academy. The academy building was a massive building in the typical style found in Konohagakure. surrounding the grounds where training/practical instructing occurs is a wall with gates making the entrance. Currently the academy was being flooded with small children being accompanied by parents all excited to be here, including Naruto and myself, the Hokage was smiling to everyone before we arrived which added to the whole experience.

Once signing we were sent to our classroom and it was fairly basic with a small pedestal at the front behind it was a blackboard and then the rest of the classroom has three sets of seats three rows reaching to the back of the room. Which fortunately was able to hold all this year's students and some more.

With everyone's guardian gone we had all filtered into the room slotting ourselves in the seats; Naruto and I sat together near the back adjacent to the window overlooking the training area of the academy. Others had flowed into the seats and seemed to form instant friend groups, even if they were made prior to this day.

The people were unidentifiable to me yet I noticed a few donning crests and symbols which I assumed to be clan related, not too much of a stretch since this is the village noted for it's many clans.

Almost as if it were clockwork the clock swiveled to nine am and the door slide open in the presence of the last person I'd expected to see... Iruka Umino in the usual chunin apparel and looking happy as ever, he glanced over at the astonished faces that belonged to myself and most certainly Naruto. Iruka carried on with no response to us which is to be expected, he had lots to get in order for the new students although it looked as if he had a slight smirk painted across his face. I could only wonder why.

The day as a whole was normal, and all the students were creating their social groups; Naruto and myself decided that we shouldn't be any different. Naruto talked to many more people than I did. Making good foundations, fortunately most children weren't aware that all adults (with few exceptions) despised him.

While Naruto had gleefully mingled I strayed towards some trees that were not too far away from the rest of the students. There wasn't anyone here but that just allowed me to think more clearly on this whole situation. Finally here and now the idea of becoming a shinobi wouldn't be too far fetched. The only concern on my mind was Naruto. While I'm sure he could make it through the academics, at least the physical areas, these children will probably not stay around forever.

I was a slightly cynical child and knew that these kid's parents wouldn't allow this friendship to develop. 'Mother knows best' right? I hated the concept that everyone should be evil to one person no matter what, especially if they've done nothing wrong.

Coming out of my thoughts the group that Naruto was conversing with had started to siphon away from the main body and become smaller groups. Naruto had three people stood next to him, The tallest of the newcomers had spiked hair formed into a ponytail, dark lazy eyes that accompanied the bored posture that finalised the person, I analysed that he talked the least, and wasn't all to interested as they kept glancing up at the sky. The most talkative was a hooded person who I couldn't see the front of, they contradicted their outfit by wearing a furry jacket and shorts which was odd since the village is in a warm and hot area. The final person I had a few glimpses of, they seemed to have some red on their face which wasn't too uncommon for shinobi to have, it aided the fashion of some, and had a scarf type accessory to fit with some casual wear (again scarf and shorts... It's pretty damn hot in the village)

Their conversation had maninly switched between the two most talkative people, that being Naruto and the fur jacket wearing kid. Naruto had swiftly mentioned me and that caused the focus to shift and I was shortly motioned and told to join in.

Appearing next to Naruto I stood waiting for some indiciation on the topic of the conversation, I was being talked about somehow but needed to know the details. Naruto had briefly stated that they were talking about their thoughts on the school and Naruto had said that he and myself were excited and were going to celebrate tonight.

I still didn't say too much even now that I had joined in but the conversation strayed from me after that anyways. With my late insertion into the conversation I felt it'd be awkward if I tried to speak.

Not too long after the time to go home had arrived. We were all given a timetable for this year, it was fairly balanced between theory and... more theory, they didn't let the first years do any practical stuff. Except for two times, once during the halfway mark of the academic year where we were tested on basic physical ability (running and climbing). The second time is when we reach the end of the year and they once more test physical ability, as it was a requirement.

This was the part of the day I was dreading. When everyone was getting picked up by their parents and guardians the children were explaining their day and when the adults saw Naruto they had questioned the small innocent people about their interactions between themselves and Naruto. Then followed with a few words and the children often looked confused but followed along. There were few exceptions either because they hadn't interacted with Naruto or because the adult hadn't seen him. I looked at Naruto who was looking down; expecting this to be different, a new place where everyone shared a common goal meaning that we could all have cohesion.

I looked at my friend with a small smile "Hey Naruto..." The only acknowledgement was a small glance at me "It is probably is best, if they are swayed so easily then they don't deserve your friendship..." It was a far fetched attempt, and one that wasn't really effective. I knew that I couldn't stop even if I wasn't currently helping, because as I looked back towards the leaving people I noticed that there was Shikamaru and his best friend Choji (their names had cone up during the conversation) talking about their day to their fathers, Shikamaru pointed over towards Naruto and I and their wasn't a disappointing look or anything similar to that. "Naruto, Shikamaru's dad is coming over here... But I feel like he isn't like the others."

Naruto had shook slightly as I started talking about someone coming over but looked up in confusion and slight disbelief as I spoke the latter part. "You're Naruto, and Zuko right?" It was a very authoritative voice that seemed to demand the truth and would produce consequences if lied to. The voice had us both nod and unable to speak reliably.

He had looked at us with a gaze that analysed us with every detail. His eyes slightly cloudy while detailing Naruto, they had also lingered for slightly longer. Not a few seconds later after getting a response from us he retorted once more "You two are friends with Shikamaru and Choji?" which gained the same response, if not a little hesitant as Naruto and myself look between us then at the boys in question. It was surprising when he smiled and his voice became much more calming "Well then I'd like to invite you both to celebrate the entering of the academy with us tonight." it wasn't a question, not that we could refuse anyway.

Naruto had looked more confused than I had and we were unsure on how to accept. Naruto was the one who stood up to the pedestal That's awesome, we will be there, that's a promise!" He said this with a goofy smile and then there was a small pause. "So where is it gonna be?"

Shikamaru's dad chuckled and answered "At the Akamichi BBQ restaurant. We'll see you there at five p.m." With that he turned and escorted his son and son's best friend home. Leaving us to understand what just transpired.

"Hey Zuko..." Naruto was the first to speak

Slightly shocked still I just muttered "Yeah?".

"We made friends on the first day!" Basically radiating with joy Naruto exclaimed that, then urged that we tell Iruka. I agreed without hesitation, it was something new and that to me was exciting.

Iruka was just walking out of the classroom when we approached, faces full of glee. Iruka had a slightly worried face as he wasn't too sure why we were so happy. "Hey Iruka-Sensei we made some friends and they asked us to come eat with them tonight at five!" Naruto had almost erupted with words that slightly sounded coherent. Judging from Iruka's huge uplift in his face, he had heard and was very happy as well.

"That's great guys, who are you going with, and where to?" I could guess that Iruka would be slightly worried with us going out with someone he didn't know. Most people would have taken this opportunity to harm us, so the questions were appreciated... It also tested Naruto's memory.

"It's uh... In a resturant. With Shikamaru and Choji, I think Shikamaru's dad will be there too." He almost got all of it remembered.

Iruka visibly relaxed when he heard that members of the prestigious clans were going to be there. Swiftly looking between Naruto and I he agreed to let us go. "You two should have something nicer to wear there though..." It was a nice gesture but I knew Iruka would go too fancy or too extravagant for what would most likely a casual event.

I took this thought to heart and spoke up "Ah Iruka, I think it will just be casual. We'll be fine." Iruka looked at me and seemed to ponder the situation as if it were the biggest decision of his life. Then he just sighed; giving in he let us go prepare while he finished doing things at the academy.

When Naruto and I arrived at the resturant we were stumped. Both excited and nervous we hadn't been to a place with huge amounts of popularity and merit. Sure Ichiraku was good, but it was rather isolated in a lesser district. Comparing the two is the same as comparing the Hokage to a Chunin; Sure they'd have some experience and potential but there isn't as much seriousness to the business either. I was certain that we would never be at a place like this but here we are.

Shikamaru was the first to see us giving a small 'hey' while someone with long dark hair and extremely acute, feminine features sat adjacent looking with a gentle scan of the two of us.

'Hey Shika!' Naruto was straight into acting his usual self once seeing Shikamaru. It was a quick exchange but one that swiftly allowed us to seat ourselves, being introduced to Shikamaru's parents. They seemed fairly nice and hadn't shown any scorn or dislike towards myself or Naruto. At first I was surprised by Shikamaru's mother being there but it was explained that it wouldn't be fair leaving her on her own.

Choji came in a few minutes later and apologised for being the last there; assuming he was late. The meal was quiet, or at least it was too me. Everyone talked to each other, but I was noticeably isolated, it was ironic as I was sat in the middle of Naruto and Choji. I didn't exactly instigate any conversations but at the same time no one seemed to want to start one with me anyways.

The event was over and everyone was parting ways, happiness was evident in everyone and it was a good dine which made this day very memorable. Walking home Naruto talked about the conversations at the restaurant, 'Shika's dad was asking a lot about what we thought about stuff. Kinda cool to go out and be talked to like anyone else right?' It was more rhetorical but nevertheless I agreed with him verbally.

'It was a nice change of pace.' There was a few seconds of silence 'Hey, do you think that Shikaku wanted to be a shinobi?' It was an odd question, but it was there and I thought that it wouldn't be bad to ask.

Naruto thought for a short moment before answering, 'That's an weird thing to ask... I think he did. Because then he can protect all of his clan.' It was said with a face of determination, as if he himself were in that position. It took me by surprise a little, I thought that he would rather be close to the less dangerous areas of life, but then there's his clan, it would be hard if he wasn't a shinobi. His friends were probably shinobi too.

The rest of the walk was in silence, Naruto content with the surroundings and I pondering the most random thoughts.


	5. Well, it was just once

Being at the Academy felt normal. The study was interesting, the other students hadn't really been of concern. Naruto had almost always found something to get in trouble over; fighting his rival which never ended well for him, skipping class, pulling pranks. The activities he did made him happy. It caused Iruka multiple issues with his blood pressure, due to stress, but it was relatively good system. Choji and Shikamaru spent time with him... at first anyways, they started to leave him be to get caught in trouble as it was getting more boring and troublesome than worth the effort.

I on the other hand sailed through paying no heed to others, I wasn't the best in the class and I didn't aim to be. I was in the middle of the road. The biggest problem I faced was Kiba Inuzuka while on a normal day I didn't mind him, he was the type of person that looked for trouble and always seemed to target me. Now it wasn't because I couldn't, it was more because it was a bad idea to retaliate towards him. I had seen Naruto do this too many times and Iruka had always gave him some form of punishment to accommodate it. Although this didn't stop Kiba from preying on my lack of social ability, it wasn't something that had bothered me, just confused me as I wasn't the only one in that room who had a similar social skill.

Shino Aburame was the most silent person in that class, he was avoided because his affinity with insects though this surprising didn't seem to be the only contributing factor. His clan seemed relatively reserved as it was. Shino's large jacket had covered most of his face and stature leaving his eyes barely visible; except his blacked out glasses covered his eyes. Leaving a mysterious loner that was always nearing the top of the students, he never bragged or really took notice of this. Shino was just there.

The other was more surprising. The Heir to the Hyuuga clan Hinata. Timid and insecure, she would try and avoid detection of anyone but when it came to academics she didn't hold back, while not the top of the Kunoichi she was close. She occasionally would look upset... or depressed when it came to the end of the day. Nonetheless Hinata was someone who everyone knew and was aware of but not everyone noticed, but I think she prefered it that way.

I think Kiba was slightly afraid of Shino, being the tallest and most intimidating in the class, and made him unlikely to target. Hinata, well I don't think Kiba is the person to pick on someone that timid. Thus leaving me. So I guess it didn't really confuse me, I guess I wished it wouldn't be every day.

Kiba only made me snap once, it was just after Naruto's 12th birthday making it a bad week in general, the best part was a small party with Iruka at Ichiraku's ramen stand. But that was it. Kiba had clearly not seen any indication to leave me alone, my demeanor and attitude were not the most obvious but still, it could be seen. Kiba decided today was the day he would step up his antics. During the lunch break I had just departed from Naruto who had planned a 'ingenious' prank so I was left to my own devices. Or so I thought, Kiba had decided that Akamaru should accidentally bite me and then push me to get him off. While it did get him off it wasn't necessary, but I could get past that, what I couldn't get past was Kiba starting to rant at me

"You know what's funny? I could just be the crap out of you fot fun, no one really cares. See everyone else has some sort of person that stops me from having some fun. Except you clearly. Especially since you don't have any parents or friends." Kiba wouldn't be like this to anyone else, he knew better, but right now? He thought he could do anything.

I slowly stood up "Kiba, I'm kinda not in the mood, can you do this another time?" I had given him a look of tiredness, I was getting angry but I wouldn't do anything unless he really annoyed me.

"Just do it another time?" Kiba's preplexed look was all I got. "How about both then and now!"

I gave I sigh and then looked up at Kiba properly "you really want to do this Kiba?" all I got was a glare and Kiba rushing towards me with Akamaru right behind him "guess that answers it then."

I prepared for the first assault and started on the defensive. Kiba throws in a combo of punches which are deflected easily enough, the trouble came when Akamaru lunged from the side, thinking as quick as I could I grabbed Kiba and spun our positions, leading Akamaru to either bite or headbut his owner. It turned out to be the first. Kiba momentarily stunned by the act of betrayal left an opening which allowed me to a five hit combo I'd been practicing, one hit to the face, followed by one on the upper chest, flowing into an elbow to the stomach with a spin into a punch in the same area, finishing with a kick to legs leaving him falling from unbalance. Akamaru had now unlocked his jaw and was trying to attend his master as he groaned in pain.

"Is that enough Kiba?" I wasn't satisfied with the idea that he would try and attack me again, but I also knew that there could be less than favourable consequences if Kiba went and told anyone anything that he wanted.

He grunted before speaking "you know that you're going to pay for this."

"Yes, I know. Are you done?" I was tired of this week and wanted it over qucik.

The silence was all I got so I left and went to class, waiting for it to start.

Iruka had given me a detention so Naruto and I had spent it trying to break out of it, which wasn't bad, it would have been worse but Iruka had heard my side of the story and took care of it. Kiba still irritated me but he was always at a distance and in front of people he could call upon for witnesses. It could have been worse.

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 **Author's Note : I don't plan to do many of these, but I felt it was kind of needed. I feel like I'm rushing this bit of the story and that's because I don't want to do more about before everyone is a Genin. So that said there's one more chapter that will be the transition, you know the graduation exams and teams.**

 **The other reason why I'm doing this is because I haven't updated in a while, and this chapter was like half done already. I try and write these as much as possible but obviously I can't write as much as I want to. I look at these chapters and think they aren't as lengthy as I want them to be but hope they are good enough for everyone. Hopefully the next chapter won't be too long, and I do think people read this (the story I mean) so that's good.**

 **Just as a P.s Kiba is a rude jerk here because I believe it's more fitting, he was portrayed as another more spoilt Naruto (from what I saw) who wanted to cause trouble not for attention but for enjoyment.**


	6. The DownCast experiment

The last year at the academy I had found out about Sealing and it's application in shinobi life, it was fascinating and something that I tried to learn... downside was there isn't many books that someone who isn't a ranking shinobi could access. What I did find was a book on the basic calligraphy of the seals; how to improve your strokes and such. The sealing was what I'd practice at home, until I happened upon a very drunk genin who seemed unaware of the explosive tag he was showing off, enough ryō for a drink and he happily handed it over, this little happening had lead me to the woods where I would practice copying the tag onto pieces of paper trying to make my own. The premises of sealing meant that I could basically place the seal onto what I wanted and the seal would do it's function if applicable, provided chakra was placed into it. More intricate seals could allow the chakra to act as a timer before activation or having seals release something that had chakra in it to then activate more things... In theory anyways.

The makeshift explosive seal had been drawn close to two hundred times before I tried putting chakra into it, the Calligraphy had to be very pinpoint or else the chakra couldn't correctly flow. I was near the entrance to the village and had decided that would be the best place for my test. The forest like area would be ideal for having no-one around to be injured but close enough to the village that I could get in quickly if I needed for any reason. The seal had been drawn to the best of my abilities using an ink I had been saving for my actual trial run; it had been used before when I thought I'd get it perfect but alas it was going to be today, it was a special ink used in all the frequently seen seals and to me that meant that this had no way of failing. With the area I picked being almost quiet I placed my equipment down and began making the strokes for the seal. Once the seal was done I started to get slightly anxious; what if I had done it slightly wrong, there was a reason people spent years doing theory for this stuff. But I mean, I had already made it and all I have to do is put some chakra into it.

Before I could decide whether to activate it or not a yelp was sounded from nearby it didn't sound to great and it was closer than I would have liked. My instinct had me hide in a nearby tree to try and find out what is happening. I had moved to a tree which was closer to the origin of the sound, clambering into the tree I had peered into the clearing to try and spot anything. When I had a clear look on the situation I was conflicted heavily. Kiba was there, against the tree opposite the one I was parched on, he had clearly been hit into it by the two people standing over him; Akamaru was stationed on the floor having been put out of commission. My first reaction was to attack or get their attention, but that wouldn't result in anything good. There was two and I was alone. I could try separate them but how, my bushin jutsu wouldn't work for long and what would I do after.

As all these thoughts flew through my head a voice stopped it dead "Hey, Kaito get the kid in the tree." As soon as that voice stopped my eyes went wide, one of the people had seemingly vanished and then a hand grabbed my arm and then suddenly I was right next to Kiba the two men in front of me had similar disposition and had almost identical clothing. The outfit consisted of a dark brown flak jacket with red drapes on one leg and one arm, there was a headband which gave me all the realization I needed. These were shinobi of the hidden stone. They shouldn't be this far into the other nations' land. They then spoke again "Kid, you don't happen to know anything about this village here do you? Anything that is worth us sparing your life?"

Now I had been scared before but this was the worst. These people had the means to kill me without even thinking about it, the only reason Kiba wasn't dead is probably because he was spouting his mouth... that was until I had a closer look from the corner of my eye, the man who hadn't spoke yet decided to confirm my suspicions "Yeah that kid is dead, tried to kill us, saying that he was a clan heir. If that was the heir then I'd feel sorry for the rest of those fuckers." The situation became much more serious, they could kill without remorse, and that was a clan heir, someone who had some status. Then there was me.

"What information exactly are you looking for?" It was all I could think of to stall time to think of something. The more info I had the better my chances were.

"Anything that would be useful to an enemy of the Leaf." He had a small smirk when he said that, trying to instill more fear.

"Well by the sounds of how open you are about being enemies of the leaf, how can I be sure that you won't just kill me anyways?"

"If you want we can kill you? But since I doubt that is the answer then I can tell you it is because who is going to believe someone like you. You don't have any status it seems; no particular clothing or attributes that stand out, you might not be involved in anything to do with shinobi but at least we might get something out of you." It was sound reasoning who would actually believe me. But what could I even say.

After a moment of thought I had a plan, it might not work but I'd be dead if I didn't try. "Well I don't know much about it but there is this piece of paper that they give to people like me, then sometimes they just end up gone." I pull out one of my failed explosive tag seals which could hopefully pass of as a new kind of seal "They say that if you ever feel like offing yourself and all that then you can take this to the hospital where they can activate it for you and then it will all be better." It was slightly out there, but they don't know how this village works. I was winging this and going all or nothing.

They took the seal and inspected it. The one who seemed to be the leader had turned back to me "By taking it to the hospital do they mean put chakra into it?"

It felt like interrogation, every word was being analysed and one slip would end it all. "I think something like that, they only give these to orphans and people who can't get into the academy and stuff." This hopefully was convincing enough that I could get a way out.

They placed the seal on the ground before activating a jutsu. Doton: Earth clone! The ground shook slightly while a replica of the leader had emerged and went over to the seal. The clone put some chakra into it before it crumbled into rock. The seal sat dormant for a moment. The more quiet of the two had started growing impatient and picked the seal up before pulsing a large wave of chakra into it before his partner could object. They seemed somewhat disappointed however as nothing happened for another minuet. They turned back to me, suddenly brandishing their weapons. The sword held by the leader was now pointed at my throat.

Before he could declare his anger at the failed seal, the seal had triggered, a small burst of chakra had blown out of it knocking the three of us onto the ground. It was the two Iwa nin who had gotten up first then subsequently screamed as the seal marks had started spreading onto them, from the tag on the floor it had encased the two shinobi and immobilized them. This I took as my opportunity to dash into the shrubbery watching as there was a flash of the seal before two consecutive explosions had reigned through the clearing leaving the area where they stood scorched and littered with a red mist that was settling on the lack of green that was there a few moment prior.

I stayed there in an utter petrified daze. Trying to absorb the recent events that had just transpired. My class mate was killed by two skilled shinobi of the stone, had tried to scare information out of Kiba and myself. Then I somehow bullshitted my way into getting rid of them both. I don't even know how to react at the sight before me and what had happened.

A squad of ANBU black ops and two jōnin had swarmed the area, an unidentified voice told me to come out, and I complied. When I was fully visible to the adults I just stood there unsure of what would happen, some hushed and unintelligible whispers were exchanged between the Jounin and then a woman with long black hair, unbelievably red eyes and a unusual outfit had crouched down to my level "What's your name? We need to know what has happened here okay."

It seemed reasonable so I complied "I am Zuko, I am an academy student." I tried to avoid her gaze which seemed to have a particular draw towards them.

She nodded at my response "Well Zuko, can you come with me, I need you to do something for me." At this point I had no choice and just nodded, then started following her.

When we had just walked into the village the woman must have decided she didn't like the silence as she struck up a conversation "My name is Kurenai Yuhi. Zuko could you tell me what happened? It will help to deal with all of this." She had lead us to a cafe which was just off the main street of konoha.

"Um... Okay, I'm still not entirely sure what happened myself still. But I guess I'll try." We took seats near the back of the cafe and Kurenai had offered a drink of my choosing; when the waiter left to get my water and Kurenai her tea I started my recap. "I was practicing drawing seals to see if I could create an explosive tag. There was a yelp nearby which disturbed my practice. However when I looked there were Iwa nin who had killed Kiba and injured his dog."

I took a break as the waiter returned with the beverages. Kurenai took this opportunity to ask some questions for clarity. "So you knew that these people were from the hidden stone?"

"Yes, they had the headband and I'm assuming uniform, they had asked for any village secrets that could be useful for enemies of the Leaf." The situation hadn't fully kicked in and it was somewhat unreal, talking about it like it was reciting a performance I had watched.

Kurenai looked at me and then asked another question "These shinobi, did they attack you?"

I shook my head "No they had threatened to kill me if I didn't tell them something useful, I questioned them about it but they had said that if I gave them useful information then no one would believe me that some Iwa nin knew secrets, they seemed to think that my social status was an advantage for them"

A look of shock had spread across the young Jōnin's face and I wasn't sure if it was because the shinobi described in the story or me. "They seemed to think it was an advantage? wasn't it?"

I sighed before looking directly at her eyes for the first time "It was the only leverage I had over them really. Unlike Kiba who had said that he was a clan heir, and ended up dead, I had a plan that hinged on them knowing my place in this village. To them I was a nobody who might know dirt on the village and couldn't care less about me." I was given a look to continue when I stopped for a small amount of my drink. "I had tried to convince the shinobi that the village gave these specific seals to people like me, I told them that ones who aren't in the academy and things of that nature were given these tags that we could take to the hospital in case of suicidal thoughts they would then activate the seal and later you would vanish." At this point Kurenai's face was entirely unreadable. "I had given them a seal that I failed to do correctly while practicing it and because it didn't look like an ordinary seal they had used an earth style clone to activate it, it crumpled instantly after and the other nin had pushed his chakra into it directly because of the lack of activation for a few minuets."

She could now see I was hesitating a small amount "Please carry on, I need to know all the details of this, it will be over quicker if you do Zuko."

It wasn't like I had much choice either way in all honesty. "The seal had eventually activated, it trapped them in the seal's calligraphy then I hid, just before they exploded. Then you guys arrived." I was starting to get uncomfortable with the story the more it started to settle.

Kurenai had then said there was one more person I had to see before anything else, so after the drinks I accompanied her to the destination she guided me to. It was only half way through the day when we had ended up at the Hokage's office. Entering it was much different this time. Kurenai had ushered me inside and before the kage and the door was then closed behind as the three of us were now situated in the room. "Hello Zuko, Kurenai. To what do I owe the pleasure, I wasn't aware that you two knew each other?"

Kurenai was the one to respond, making the situation more tense and more serious in a few select words. "Iwa shinobi have killed Kiba Inuzuka, but have been dispatched." This had the elderly man raise an eyebrow.

"That explains the gravity but how is Zuko here involved?" The sandaime had a small look of worry edge onto his features.

"He was there and dispatched them, inadvertently." she added on the last part at the look of pure disbelief on the Hokage's face.

This sparked a conversation akin to the one previously had at the cafe with Kurenai, except it was kurenai doing the recap not me. She managed to make the recap seem shorter than it was at the first retelling of the events. After the two had finished the hokage looked me, his eyes now somewhat more weary, "Zuko, I am sorry that you had to witness such a thing. However you have helped the village a great deal." I felt as if he was just saying something to lift my spirits. With the Konoha shinobi who found us they surely would have done what I did - without any problems - I was grateful for his attempt, but it didn't do what it was intended. He then spoke up again "There is someone you will have to talk to, he will just need to ask some questions; nothing to worry about. Tomorrow come here at midday if that's okay?" I nodded without thought, I wasn't entirely sure with what to think as this day was insane, I wasn't sure if I should tell Naruto or Iruka.

Kurenai had offered to walk me back to my home, I wasn't in any mood to deny it or say anything really. We had just started walking from the Hokage's tower when the young jōnin struck up a conversation. "You're in your last year of the academy, Zuko?" She was looking at me from the corner of her eyes.

"yeah... Graduation isn't far off." I decided to ask her a question. "Why did you become a shinobi Kurenai?"

There was a small pause, "My father was a ninja, and I had always admired him." She left it at that but the way she had said it made me believe that there was more to it. "I know it is probably too early to ask but most shinobi have a specialization, at least by the time they are chunin, any idea on what you are good at?"

I hadn't really thought about it and the question caught me slightly off guard. "I don't really know, I like the idea of Sealing but I can't find any good information about it."

She looked thoughtful for a moment before talking again. "Why does it fascinate you? Sealing is a very niche side of shinobi life, most people just use the conventional ones and buy them. Although one who masters the art is a very formidable."

"I think sealing is more useful than the academy had said it was, they claim that it was only useful for storage and explosives. I think today proved that wrong and also told me why the academy only teach that much about sealing... If you do it wrong it can be devastating."

We neared my apartment building and I turned to Kurenai who started the farewells "Zuko-kun, I hope you don't dwell too much on today. I think you have potential with those seals though..." It felt as if she was considering adding onto her utterances but decided that it was best left there.

"Thank you Kurenai-san I won't worry about what happened too much, I just need a way to tell Naruto that's all." I hadn't thought about Naruto until I had seen the building where we lived. My face began to tense in a thoughtful way while walking towards the top floor.

Over the years at the Academy, the apartment building had begun to fill up slightly. People would be tempted by the lower than usual price but deterred by either the residents (Naruto and I) or the less than ideal standards of the rooms. However some people could not refuse the cheap housing and tended to keep away from the upper floors. Which was slightly stupid in reality; the lower floors were more vandalised because the teens would flock to the abandoned apartment building and mark it or break the glass and such. It seemed that the lower floors were considerably more polluted than the upper ones, while not unscathed, it was noticeably different.

I opened up the door to my apartment and watched as Naruto fell over his feet in an effort to greet me. "Very graceful there, couldn't have done it better myself." I couldn't help but give the sarcastic remark as his antics causing him to look less 'awesome' than he boasts about.

He flung himself up as he retorted "Well only the best of the best can fall over on a flat surface!" His logic baffled me.

I sat down in the kitchen scanning for something quick to eat... And surprisingly enough I found a few instant ramen packs. I begin following the instructions as I try and tell Naruto about Kiba... Even if they weren't on the best of terms I don't think Naruto would take it too well.

"Ne, Naruto, What do you think of Kiba?" I poured water into the kettle as I gauged his reaction to my random question.

He looked over slightly vexed to this, "Did he try anything again?" After I shook my head he carried on. "Well he is okay, we do pranks every now and then, he always gets caught before me though!"

I nodded before responding. I didn't want to set off any of these explosive tags I was walking past... Figuratively, for the most part. "Naruto... Today something happened, and it involves Kiba." It felt slightly different telling it to Naruto than the others, they could infer a lot more than what Naruto could. meaning I had to be blunt.

Naruto nodded in confusion allowing me to tell the tale "I was out practicing my sealing when I saw these enemy ninja attack and kill Kiba." I had tried to keep calm, I had to tell Naruto, he's the kind of person who would have been questioning everyone until he got an answer, and I don't think anyone would want to answer as to why Kiba isn't in class today.

Naruto looked at me, or maybe past me for a few seconds. I hadn't expected this... Naruto blinked and shifted his head slightly more towards me, confirming that it wasn't me originally. "Kiba is dead? But he didn't even become a Shinobi yet." I couldn't do anything but look back.

An uncomfortable silence rolled over and maintained itself. The kettle had started making a high pitched noise, suddenly remebering that it had been boiling the whole time. It had been caught listening to a conversation it had not intended to. The kettle was swiftly removed and poured into the bowl of compacted noodles and powder. "Naruto... I wish I could have done something but they were strong." all I got in response was a nod and everything went back to silence until I had finished my ramen.

"I want to focus on training more... I can't let anyone from my village die. Help and train with me Zuko, I know that if we really go at it we could kick even Sasuke's ass!" He seemed to take the news better than I expected in the end. All I could reply with was

"Sure Godaime Hokage, as you order."

The next day came in fast and I barely had enough time to get completely ready to go to the Hokage tower, nervous to meet the somebody that the Hokage had mentioned. I definitely didn't want to be late. Rushing through the streets bypassing the residents and buildings making my way to the location of today.

I had arrived with eight minutes to spare, so I decided to hover unsure as what I am to do near the receptionist of the tower. After five minutes of staring at all the details of the room I hear a voice "Are you Zuko?" I turned around to the receptionist and nodded "The Hokage is available now." she seemed bored and to prove this she sighed right after.

I had approached the door belonging to the Kage of this village and knocked a few times before hearing a 'you may enter'. Opening the door felt like allowing yourself to peek into a sealed box: you weren't sure if you were allowed to.

Walking in I noticed the presence of the Hokage, positioned dead center, so those who walked in saw his gaze first. Then a man who was taller than that one guy who helped Naruto and I before, wearing all black and as he turned I immediately identified two large scars on his face, which was encapsulated by a bandanna with the konoha symbol for all to see. They now were both looking at me and the Hokage spoke up first, the second man had a steely analytical eye on me. "Zuko-kun here is Ibiki Morino and he's going to ask a few questions about the incident yesterday, okay?" I nodded with a small 'Yes Hokage-sama' all the while Ibiki started walking towards the door motioned for me to follow.

We walked in complete silence before arriving in a different section of the building that was more concrete, less coloured and extremely cold. The shinobi had opened a door and implied that I should go in, to which I complied to the implication. He followed suit and shut the door behind him. I had noticed the simple two chairs, one table and nothing else. Ibiki motioned to the chair and not a moment later it was occupied by me, he then sat on the other side and said two simple words, they resonated loudly and clearly, reaching me but never echoing or giving any thoughts away. "What happened." There was no question, he wasn't giving me the choice all the while letting me remain silent. It was a rigged statement and he needed no effort to talk that way.

I looked a little below his eyes, fearing the type of person that was here. I surmised that this was his job, and he had to be one of the best at it. The question was why was he asking me; surely there are other qualified people to do this. Some that are less... Less intimidating or flawless in their strategies.

Before I could fulfil my thoughts Ibiki interrupts the process reminding me of my silence "Do you have reason not to tell me?" These powerful phrases he used were intense and I started blabbing about the events of yesterday and he kept up, never missing a jumbled sentence, or rushed word. Yet his passive expression showed nothing; I was talking at a brick wall that wouldn't budge.

By the end of my story Ibiki had then started asking questions. "Did these people give any thing about their plans away?"

Almost instantly I responded with "They wanted information... 'Anything that would be useful to an enemy of the Leaf.' They didn't seem to care if I was connected to the shinobi or not."

Ibiki jotted something on a pad that I hasn't noticed at that point. Then looked back to me, "They were capable of ninjutsu including Doton. They wore Iwa clothing. Had intention to threaten Konoha. Killed a clan heir. But Zuko managed to kill them both with a defective seal." While reciting the facts we both new he never blinked, gazing at what felt like my soul, trapped I had no way of looking

away. After what I recall to be 30minuets of intense staring Ibiki stood up and left. leaving me to my own thoughts, something that I had not been able to do this entire time.

I first analyse my surroundings to be sure I'm still in the same place, though with how little there is in the room it would be hard to tell. There wasn't even a clock... which now that I think about it is probably to improve the effectiveness of some of the tactics used here. Something so simple could be used to such a big degree.

With the bland room out of my mind, I began to think about Ibiki. He was really good at this, that was obvious. Which makes me wonder why he was the one to do it. I don't think there are many people better than him when it comes to this area. Meaning that either I was a super big important enemy. Which wasn't the case, the Hokage could prove that for sure. So people involved were important, but there's no way to identify them so they might not have been.

There was more to it then? What did these guys represent: The village hidden in the stone, Konohagakure's biggest enemy (at war times anyway). After saying that it dawned on me. They weren't important it is the implications behind it. Iwa wanted to damage the leaf somehow even in these times of peace. Ibiki was here because they needed the most information as possible to counter this event. It showed that Konoha doesn't like the thought of people disrupting the peace of the village at all. If people start to think there's war then nothing good would happen. We learned that much in history of the Shinobi.

The door had silently opened, unsure if this was a rigged thing where if I left they would place me responsible for all the trouble. I stayed still looking for someone to come in and allow me to leave.

a few moments pass and I decided to try ask if someone was indeed there. "Uh. Did anyone accidentally open a door?"

Silence.

"Uh, Ibiki-san just left without saying anything, so I don't know if I could have left or not."

Another round of silence ensued.

"Well uh, This is kind of weird and I'm gonna try and go home now..." It felt stupid talking to no one, but if I just upped and left when some sneaky shinobi was watching then it would be worse than talking to the void of this room.

I meandered back through the door and followed the steps I took before to get here. Passing by the Hokage office was more tense because the door had (in)conveniently opened as I was nearing it. Probably sending signals that I was supposed to stay and wait, and normally I would have but it had been a few hours there and I was starting to regret not having lunch.

The person who appeared from the door made me let out a breath of relief, which I hadn't noticed I was holding.

Kurenai had just come out of the office, and ended up looking at the sound she noticed coming towards her, the person she least expected was there. Surprise flashed on her face but was gone before I could fully realise it. "Hello Zuko, how are you today?" A nice friendly conversation starter, it was kind of refreshing after Ibiki's minimal vocalizations.

"Hello Kurenai-san, I have been better; do you know Ibiki-san?" It was slightly off hand but I felt like I could tell her about today.

Kurenai just nodded in slight confusion.

"Well the person Hokage-sama asked me to meet was him... Do you think he's scary, or is that... uh just me?

I was slightly uncomfortable with the notion that a shinobi to be was flat out scared, but Kurenai just smiled a little and replied "He prides himself on that. Ibiki is the head of the Torture and Interrogation, but I didn't think he would be the one you had to see." her musings had brought us to the outside.

"I figured it was because the nature of what happened. Kurenai-san have you ever been to war?" The abrupt change caused a shock across her face and at that I elaborated for her sake "Just yes or no, I'm certain the specifics aren't something you want to tell everyone."

Kurenai sighed and gave a simple "yes" before I continued.

"I believe that if something were to happen, if more ninja try take more information from someone else then another war could spawn from it. That's why Ibiki was doing all that. I think so anyway."

"Very astute way of thinking. It is definitely possible." After this we continued to walk for awhile, something becoming more confusing as time proceeded on. I was on my way to the academy at this momentmoment, yet Kurenai was still walking beside me. I had to go back to classes, Iruka already notified about my absence by the Hokage's messenger. But Kurenai had no reason to go that way, she didn't work there. She could possibly be going to a friend's house or somewhere though she would have gone on and said her goodbyes.

"Kurenai-san, I am slightly confused." I looked up at her, in response she glanced at me and asked why.

"Well you seem to be going to the academy, though you don't seem to work there... And I'm certain you're not just following me." Kurenai laughed at the response.

The Jōnin had reminded me of how we met today. After confirmation of that she decided to put a veil over her words. "The Hokage assigned me a special task for the foreseeable future and go aid in this I'm going to the academy." There were noticeable areas that weren't detailed or just left at it's basic level.

I thought of some possible reasons but I would never know unless I asked. "Kurenai-san, are you going to he a Jōnin Sensei?" the Jōnin in question could barely contain her mirth.

"Why do you say that?"

"Your timing of the assignment, the location you are heading to and the fact that you're a Jōnin made me believe that you are a soon to be Sensei." By now we had reached the gates of the academy.

"That is true. I am here to look at potential Genin. Though if you have any information on them, you could tell me. it'll save me some time then."

Kurenai didn't seem like one to cut corners but then again, she hadn't got her team yet, just wanted a little overview of the class. "Sure. I don't see why not, Iruka already is prepared to have me out all day." The young woman nods before suggesting a more relaxing place to talk.

We had wondered to a place nearby, a small park that held a few benches surrounded by foliage and trees rising above them. The few swings and slides dotted around had a red colour with green shades to comply with the traditional colours seen within Konoha. Kurenai had just waited for me to start, I wasn't sure what she wanted me to say. I had decided to tell her about their personality, or what they portrayed in the academy and their placement in the class.

I gave a rundown of all the students; Kurenai only seemed interested or more interested in the Clan heirs and oddly enough Naruto.

Aburame Shino:

Quiet and appears isolated, however seems to get ignored because of his clan. He focuses most his time on academics rather than social aspects.

Akimichi Choji:

Almost always eating and hanging out with Nara Shikamaru. People tend to point out his size although his anger has made it so people have learned not to comment on this. Choji balances his studies with his social life.

Hyūga Hinata:

Anxious and shy. She barely speaks, and no one forces her to. Unlike other Hyūga she doesn't flaunt her relation to the clan. Focused on her studies and seems hesitant in spars.

Nara Shikamaru:

Bored and clever, though he doesn't try much Shikamaru makes sure to stay directly in the middle of the class.

Uchiha Sasuke:

While he used to be more open the lone Uchiha has turtled up and focused only on his shinobi training. He is top of the class and only really seems to respond to Uzumaki Naruto.

Uzumaki Naruto:

Loud and proud. He always pulls pranks to get peoples attention, however he struggles in the academic side.

Yamanaka Ino:

Like most females she has an obsession with the Uchiha, despite this she is one of the top female students. Ino tends to care more about social factors and looks rather than studies it seems.

With that Kurenai had all the info she needed. Posing her thoughts I was about to get up when she asked an odd question: "What is your assessment of yourself?"

I stared at her in confusion before complying to her request. "I possibly focus on too many things, I am middle of the road in class... I'll pass the graduation exam without much problem, the biggest problem being taijutsu..." I trailed off hoping that would satisfy her demands, which she seemed to accept.

"I think you should head into class now, thank you for the information."

With that we parted as I rushed towards the academy.


	7. Let's test the fresh leaves

It had been an sporadic morning as we both rushed to get ready for the big day. Graduation was hyped for years, finally to become a ninja and help your village. This would be great... except we barely got there on time. Naruto and I were lucky to be near the end, me last and Ino just after Naruto. So we could somewhat be late, but Iruka-Sensei loves his speeches and hates tardiness. It wouldn't have been a problem if Naruto hadn't thrown his alarm, which acted as mine too, because it woke him up a day early.

But that doesn't matter anymore, this would be the day where I step out of this academy. I felt somewhat pleased with my ability to pass this, Naruto however was worrying me more; he had approached me about his inability to use the clone technique. Now my sensory prowess hasn't improved much but I could tell that Naruto had an odd problem, he put too much chakra in, I couldn't get him to put less in which seemed to be in regards to the amount he has. My chakra in comparison is like an ant to a lake, the ant can pick up precise things whereas the lake ends up drowning it. So I tried everything to get Naruto to complete the jutsu... There was one way to make it work but there wouldn't be enough room in the academy to show it off.. making it very impractical. I took Naruto outside the populated areas and asked him to make clones. As many as possible. This is where the problem became apparent. Naruto was all I could see. Literal thousands. I could make ten at most. We were stumped at what to do. Iruka-Sensei's only advise was to practice... He did not seem to care about the amount he could make, which struck me as odd.

The exam had three parts, Academic: A fairly basic test of all the practical things we had learnt. Taijutsu: Sparing against Mizuki-Sensei, allowing correct hits in while blocking and evading incorrect ones, speed was the determining factor, fastest attacks got better score. Ninjutsu: Demonstrating the three main techniques from the academy. You had to pass two of the three types off tests to pass, each type had various ways to determine if you pass.

Being last mostly sucked. I had to wait which wasn't bad, I had seen everyone else pass first except one. I couldn't do anything about it but walk into the room that Naruto slumped out of. Iruka-Sensei was the first to greet me as I stood in the middle. The room was exactly like the rest of the academy, it was situated differently however as a desk with both sensei sat down there, the room was wide enough to have the exam but not overly so. Logs situated in the corner, supposedly for the substitution technique.

"You may show us the three jutsu in any order" I merely nodded as I swiftly moved my hands to weave through the signs needed calling out on completion "Transformation Jutsu." With that Chakra surged around me slightly as a cloud pooped into existence and when it faded it revealed a perfect replica of Mizuki-Sensei, then once more of Iruka-Sensei.

After reverting to myself I decide to use the clone jutsu and with the hand signs needed five clones joined me in the room. The clones were all identical and the only difference was my chakra being larger. I then thought to use the clones in tandem with the next technique, all off the clones spread out and one threw a kunai, of course it wouldn't have done anything due to it's lack of physicality but I readied the Substitution Jutsu and switched with another clone. The display should be enough for a pass easily.

Once all the clones vanished Iruka was the first to congratulate me. "Well done Zuko, you passed. You can take any headband you'd like" he gestured to the tray they had to their right and I almost rushed to get it. But instead I calmly picked one up and looked at it in detail: the blue cloth material was sturdy but soft, it was lengthy but not in a way in which it would be detrimental by allowing potential enemies to use that against you. A slick metal plate that despite being in this room all day was entirely cool. Directly in the middle was the insignia for the village, the acknowledgement that I am a protector of it. I hold it in my hand as I walk out of the room, barely noticing Iruka-Sensei follow and Mizuki-Sensei poof out of the room.

Iruka-Sensei had declared it the end of the day and that the next day after tomorrow would be team placements.

Leaving the academy I couldn't see Naruto around, I wanted see if he was at ichiraku otherwise I would just let him do what he needed to, Naruto got like this very rarely usually near his birthday if it got too bad, but this case was considerably worse, Naruto wanted nothing more than to be a shinobi and to have that be taken away would be devastating. He once told me of a time when he had tried to cohort Iruka-Sensei into letting him try his headband. It didn't work but it has been the only thing he has ever really wanted.

After failing to find Naruto anywhere I decided to walk around for awhile. Aimlessly wondering the village I was now supposed to defend and fight for it, I was surprised to find I had walked over to the surrounding forests, this is where kiba had been killed. The whole thing had been suppressed after Ibiki had asked questions about the event I had completely stopped thinking of it.

Looking around I found the atmosphere to be scary; it was quiet barely any wind going through this area. There was no sign of previous disturbance to the clearing. The people at the academy were told that Kiba had been accidentally killed, an unfortunate accident. A funeral was held but I'd forgotten about it, not unintentionally it felt like I was somewhat at fault. I know that everyone had tried to convince me otherwise but at the very least Kiba shouldn't have died, even if I was dead instead. I buried the thoughts of that event away. I was pretty sure the Inuzuka clan knew what actually happened but couldn't do much about it. Those ninja that had been obliterated were etched into my mind, I kept telling myself that it was an accident and it was me or them, it helped a small amount, what was better was that they weren't anything to me: I could barely remember their voices, yet their screams were loud, faceless but in pain.

Coming out of my thoughts I noticed how dark it was meaning I should head home, hopefully Naruto would be in a better mood. On the walk home I notice lots more ninja about than usual. I hadn't noticed anything odd but maybe more enemy shinobi where about. That would be bad but with this many leaf nin here it would be quickly solved, finally reaching home I quickly did my routine to end the day, hoping that Naruto wasn't in too much trouble this time as he wasn't here.

The next day was less eventful, I woke at midday and as a result panicked before rushing to get my ninja registration complete. The picture they took was generic and I had decided to place my headband on my forehead which is stardard for shinobi. By the time I had all that finished and handed in to the Hokage I did find Naruto, much happier... and covered in white paint, accompanied wth red swirls. I sighed to myself before he noticed me nearby. "Hey Zuko! You'll never guess what?" He didn't even give me time to respond as he carried on "I am a ninja now, believe it. Iruka-Sensei gave me his after Mizuki-sensei tried something funny" I only nodded to this, not too sure of how I should respond. It didn't seem like fun to experience but he was happy. I decided to nod and congratulate him, he had somehow did it, this for some reason didn't surprise me as Naruto had this unpredictability about him and most things tended to work out. He then went to have his registration picture then hand that in. After that small conversation I had nothing left to do other than prepare for team placements.

I wasn't too bothered with who my commrades could be, I would strive to work well with anyone I was put with. Though Naruto and I had a pretty good understanding of how we fight, after our training spars Naruto was easily a messy brawler. He didn't always go through the motions as intended or as expected, yet never lost their attack power or speed. His actual style was mostly dirivative from the basic style taught at the academy; mine being a exact repelica with few differences as I prefer to have specific strikes than general damage towards a person. This meant that instead of always using a fist I would strike with my hand out but never just do that. It was a work in progress but that is expected: I am a genin.

The following day had everyone waiting for the moment that they would be put into squads and given a Jonin sensei to help them train and protect the village through missions and whatever else was required. Today was exciting, yet somehow it wasn't enough for Naruto apparently, Naruto and Sasuke had a little glare off because everyone was drawn towards the stoic attitude of the last Uchiha. Then one of the only few people who hadn't looked over had knocked Naruto off balance... Resulting in what the two participants could have only concidered to be the worst thing ever to have happen. Naruto because of his attraction towards Sakura and the droves of students who adored Sasuke and thusly didn't like his rival. Then Sasuke because he hadn't wanted his appearance of complete nonchalant-ness to break and his dislike of doing 'idiotic' things. Iruka-Sensei had calmed the class down just before the girls could get their hands on the young Uzumaki. He started with a speach that tried to give more meaning to our new jobs as Genin. He did well, but we were all too excited about the start of our ninja life that it came off boring. Iruka-Sensei stood strong and powered through the speach before he started to announce the newest teams to join the shinobi forces.

The first two teams were new, Team one and Team two had been declaired, Teams 3,4 and 5 were already taken and belonged to other, older, Genin. Team 6 were allocated. Then Team 7. History lessons had never said anything too positive about team 7, either something really bad happened or they turned out unlucky in some way or another. Team 7 hosted the Second Hokage, and by extention the Third Hokage's team which made it seem like a positive thing to be in team 7, if you believed the superstition that just being in team 7 was a good thing. However no shinobi became great without misfortune of some kind: The first Hokage had to kill his best friend for betraying the village, the third Hokage had watched his team become powerful then break up into their problems, then having his sucsessor die before him during his old age. Even Iruka-Sensei had his parents killed and couldn't do anything to help. With all these thoughts running through my head I almost missed the announcment of the team "Team Seven will be: Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha-" Iruka was cut off by loud moaning and a lone cheer "- and Naruto Uzumaki." He hurriedly finished. This gained mixed emotions from team 7, they all had someone they wanted to have on their team. Sakura wanted Sasuke, Naruto wanted Sakura, and Sasuke wanted someone who wouldn't get in his way or his rival. Naruto almost spoke out but Iruka-Sensei hurried onto Team 8 before he could inturrupt. "Team Eight will concist of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Zuko." This was somewhat a surprise. Most teams had a basis on which to place the members, for example the famed Ino-Shika-Cho combo team had been generations old and the three clans were close and utilised their jutsu in effective combo attacks. Though I was aware that Shino could use his insects to tag and track, and hinata could use her byuakugan doujutsu for a wide range of things: chakra control to tracking. I hadn't thought that my ability to sense chakra would be much use, but if trained correctly it would extend the range... But Hinata's Kekki Genkai would be much better than I could ever get my ability to be. I had just finished my thoughts as Iruka finished the last few teams. I didn't catch what team 9 was but team 10 seemed to be the Ino-Shika-Cho trio which was no surprise.

Iruka-Sensei had told us that after lunch our Jonin Sensei would take us away and we would be under their charge for the forseeable future. When lunch began I noticed Hinata and Shino had come over to me, and Shino spoke in a minimalistic tone "I think it would be wise to have lunch together, Hinata-san, Zuko-san?" He had asked for our thoughts on this proposal, Hinata agreed with a slight stutter, not used to talking to the taller boy while I nodded my head with an agreeing confirmation.

We made our way to one of the large trees in the academy enterance area. We sat around the base of the tree, at first in a comfertable silence before it was broken by a small voice "I-I hope we c-can get alo-along well as a team" I looked over to the pale-eyed girl and smiled.

"I don't see why we wouldn't, I don't know about you two but it seems this team is stuctured around tracking... What do you think?" I asked both of my new teamates as they started to ponder this very question.

"That would seem logical." There was a small pause before Shino carried on "Though what exactly can you do to track? Hinata has her clan's jutsu and I have mine."

It was blunt but true none-the-less. Hinata piped up before I could agree however "I-I am sure that Z-Zuko-Kun has other w-ways to help the t-team" she offered a smile, not wanting me to feel out of place if that was the reason for this team.

I shook my head "Well Shino you're right, I can sense chakra of people but I have no idea how to use it that much. It has a small radius and even if I had expanded it, Hinata's dojutusu would outclass it by miles. As for other ways to help the team? I have no idea." Shino hadn't looked too impressed with that and Hinata was slightly sullen at 'outclassing' any skill I could bring to a tracking team. I decided to add "But the tracking team is just a hypothesis. Besides we are just Genin, so the specilization of a team wouldn't come until we were much more developed..." I trailed off into slience. Not comfortable like before. It stayed this way as each of us though about the team in our own ways. I had probably not helped the dynamic of the team and we haven't even met our Jonin Sensei yet.

It didn't take too much longer before I saw a familar face wonder past us until said person turned and smiled gracefully. Each of us having now noticed the person who was strolling over to us. "Hello. You three must be Team Eight right?" Each of us nodded and before I could say anything she carried on "Alright, since I got here early lets go now to save some more time..." She stared at our faces before laughing a slight bit. "You must be wondering who I am? I am your Jonin Instructor: Kurenai Yhuui. I hope to train your potential well. Follow me." She had introduced herself (mainly to the other two) and wanted to leave a big first impression. It worked. Kurenai was my sensei? I hadn't really expected it. Either way we finially got to meet the person who would take charge of this team and hopefully aid us in becoming a greater shinobi.

Walking with my team we ended up at a nearby cafe that was in every way normal, it had bland colours and it wasn't busy but not scarce either. The sent of the various tea was flowing through and tended to mix as they diffused into the room we were sitting in. Kurenai had wanted us to get to know eachother more and offered each of us a drink, Tea was being surved around and the tea of Team Eight was blending it's sents together, creating an aroma that was plesant and almost went unnoticed. It fit well together but it was not trying to do it. The conversastion started with Kurenai-Sensei talking a little about herself. "You three know my name, but a person is always more than that no matter what. I am a person who likes Tea ceromonies and creating artistic things. As a shinobi I am a Jonin who specialises in Genjutsu, the art of altering the senses. While it seems simple, there are very few who can become incredibly profficant in this type of shinobi life. I am not too partial to people who always judge with no merrit to their reasons and the people who believe that every problem is black and white in its solution. I hope that you all will grow into wonderful shinobi that can be respected."

Kurenai-Sensei had a way with words which was probably somewhat attributed to her mastery of genjutsu. She asked Shino to explain some stuff about himself. "My name is Shino Aburame, though you seem to know that already. I like studying and improving my jutsu which utilise my insects." As if to prove his point a small beetle had scuttled across his nose, barely being visable with his high collar. "I take pride in my clan's ability and jutsu that can help us in a great many ways... I also dislike thoes who judge with lack of reasoning. I want to be able to cross bread certain insects, to counteract their weaknesses." Shino had everything set straight and as such didn't say more than what was needed. Next it had gone to Hinata who had been listening and admiring her tea until now.

She had begun to heat up and it was visiable on her face, I had seen her like this before but this time it wasn't as bad yet she still didn't look up as she spoke "I am Hinata H-Hyuuga and I like training a-and reading, also cin-cinnamon buns..." at this decloration Hinata paused and her face flamed some more, which caused Kurenai to smile almost giggling, and both Shino and myself were impartial to this; it was statistically guarenteed that people out there like the sweet, otherwise it wouldn't be sold or made at all. "I don't dislike m-much but when p-people do unnessecary bad things to o-others. One day I want to prove my f-f-father proud." Hinata left it at that and then it had come to me, I wasn't too sure what to say obviously I got the gist of it but what to actually say was the problem.

I drank some tea before starting "My name is Zuko, I guess I like to learn and improve. I also am excited to be on this team with you all... I want to be a good shinobi, one that can protect and help this village. However, I dislike the seperation this village seems to have." Seeing the confused faces on everyone, even Kurenai-Sensei I elaborated "People always appear to treat others differently, even if they don't know why they deserve it - or if they deserve it at all - which is why I hope that being a shinobi will help me understand more..." I trailed off as I was unsure of what to add after that. Kurenai then made a sound to grab our attention and it worked.

"We are going to have a little evaluation of your abilities and we will go from there. I want you three to come to the allocated training ground we can use; training ground 8 isn't too far from here, I will be timing you." With that breif and sudden explanation Shino took up the void of talking and decided to get us moving, we were timed after all.

"The location should be easy enough to get too. Prehaps there is more to this test?" This made us thoughtful for a brief moment as we started heading towards the training area. Agreeing to go our fastest and meet there it didn't take more than thirty minuets to get there. Shino got there briefly after myself, with Hinata a few minuets later. The area we arrived at was not disimillar to the surroundings of the village yet the fence that marked the beginning of the training ground had me reconfigure my thoughts to the training ground itself. A small pond was not too far into the area and it was surrounded by the plains that made up the training field. Trees lined the edges of the pond and its open ground accompanying it, forrests were hidden behind the darkness that the dense foliage created which would be benefitial for hiding in. Kurenai-Sensei was in the middle holding a small device which presumably allowed her to tell how much time had passed exactly. Her eyes hadn't shifted from the small item in her hand as she spoke out to us, her voice travelling the distance with a slight unnerving calmness; seeming to be bored almost.

"I want you three to try and best me in a fight. Do whatever you want. I will not make it easy and you will show me everything you can do as shinobi, anything less and I won't think you want to be trained as a ninja seriously." With that Kurenai-Sensei threw the timmer at us which as it got closer revealed itself to be a kunai. Realising the situation was about to get worse for us I jumped out of the path of the kunai and looked to see my team members do the same. Kurenai hadn't moved yet and I threw three shuriken at her to see if she would react. They stayed true and hit the target; something I wasn't expecting and as our Sensei hit the ground a poof of smoke revealed that she had utilised the substitution jutsu to avoid any damage. We now had no idea where she was and the most we could do was re-group as I couldn't find where my teammates had hidden once I threw my projectiles.

Looking around slightly wary of my Jonin instructor I notice an insect land on my nose, then immediately hover towards the trees to my left. away from the pond and into the deep foliage. Getting the hint from Shino's allies I followed it to his location and met up with Hinata and Shino who had been waiting for me. Hinata spoke up first "Kurenai-Sensei has moved back into the middle, I think she wants us to start the fight..." She trailed of slightly, Shino then picked up from that.

"This would suggest that she is holding back. Because she wouldn't have any trouble against us if she tried. I think our best strategy would be to push her into the forrest and have my kikaichu drain her chakra." Shino looked over in my direction and I nodded.

"Hinata-san and I can put pressure on her with taijutsu while you assault her with your ranged jutsu, have that be your cover for setting up the ambush once we get her past the treelines. Hinata-san I would like you to keep an eye out for openings in her guard, I am positive that Kurenai-Sensei is trying to see how well we do to what she lets us do. When she substituted, it allowed us to hide and regroup, now we need to pass the next test she has planned for us. Shino-san your strategy should let us do that." After recieving nods from my squad we set out the original location we started at. Kurenai-Sensei hadn't made note of our presence yet, unlike last time. Probably good.

I look over to Hinata, then Shino. Both seem to have concentration plastered over their face. We all wanted to prove that we are worthy to our Jonin instructor and I whispered "Let's initiate our plan then. Shino-san, if you would like to start?" Silently Shino lifted his arms as a black buzz erupted out of them and rushed towards our target. She had turned to look at them and as she was focused on them, jumping to move out the way, Hinata and myself sped towards Kurenai, Hinata following up behind me slightly allowing her to aid if nessecary, or take advantage of any openings.

Kurenai landed and had minimal time to react as the black mass followed her some more, obscuring her view slightly, I lunged through the insects with a pointed palm, the surprise attack had merrit as the hand coming through the mascaraded attack hit into her abdomen, following up to keep on with my assault I switched arms and stuck once more, however her surprise had worn off and she grabbed the outstreached arm, about to throw me away by shifting her weight Hinata came in horizontal to my arm and used her gentle fist strike on kurenai's open side, making her let go of her grip, Hinata backed off slightly as I went in for another attack, this time they were concise and quicker, I was closer allowing me to keep my arms tucked in more leaving the window for error smaller than before. Each time Kurenai was about to move away or counter she would be swarmed by Shino's jutsu or threatened by Hinata's taijutsu.

This plan was working and we almost had her to the tree line when she blurred through some hand seals and stood in her place was Shino, and since my attack had been initiated I couldn't stop my momentum and struck Shino in the upper chest, sending him onto the floor as he was unprepared for what just happened. I turned to find Hinata getting bested by Kurenai in a taijutsu attack. I look at Shino briefly, seeing him try to get up and stuggling, I rush to Hinata's side just as she got kicked into across the field and was left unable to move. As I look at Kurenai's turning form I couldn't draw my eyes away from hers. There was this unbridled bloodlust in them that had me shaking. My surroundings mattered less and less as this mist that could only be described as cold had wrapped itself around me, I couldn't even see Kurenai anymore. Just the eyes. It was piercing my very being. It made me feel hopeless and week. I could almost feel my energy being drained by the atmosphere itself. The time begrudged me and wouldn't progress. Stuck. Ready. To. End. It.

My conscious was fleeting, I didn't know what to do. Then I remembered. One thing passed through this endless nightmare I was stuck in. The first thing Kurenai-Sensei did when we got here. As that memory replayed in my final few minuets everything clicked. I gathered my chakra, centred it and prepared to flood my system with my own chakra. I had figured this test out, and now it was time to pass. With a shout of "Kai!" in tandem of me pressing my chakra to cleanse my system of foreign chakra that was inside me at that moment. The first thing to happen was warmth. That cold atmosphere and mist were no longer and then my sight became clearer. Kurenai-Sensei was behind me about to knock me out with a chop to my neck. Not fully thinking, acting more on instinct I ducked down and kicked one of Kurenai's shins. It put her of balance enough for me to coordenate my next attack. Pushing my other leg upwards and it headed for her chin, clipping it slightly my Sensei reeled backwards as I sprung up to my feet. I had this small window to analyse the situation around me. Shino was lent up against a tree and Hinata still on the floor where she was kicked to earlier. I looked to Kurenai who had a small smile on her face, despite the small blood trailing from her mouth. "I am impressed you broke that Genjutsu, and that plan would have gotten a less experienced ninja." I looked at her in confusion, but not letting my guard slip yet.

"Thank you Kurenai-Sensei however the plan was not mine. Though I see my team has been put out of commision for this battle..." I sighed. "Even if you kept holding back I wouldn't be able to best you at this point. I have no specific strength, Hinata would be better than me at Taijutsu and you beat her with it, Shino can't back me up either so I would have to retreat or die... If this were a real shinobi battle. I am sorry Sensei."

Kurenai kept silent during my analysis of the situation. Only speaking up once I came out of my guard and she had too. "You all did well. Lasted longer than I expected. You needn't be sorry either Zuko-kun, your analysis was brutal but that is a good trait in shinobi. There will always be someone stronger than you out there and that isn't a problem, you just need to keep training."

I nodded slightly before speaking up "Kurenai-Sensei... I wasn't sorry because you were stronger than me. That is obvious. It is that both my teammates fell before I did. I specifically had them go into positions further away from you so they could be more useful, especially compared to now. If I was bested and that allowed Shino-san and Hinata-san to carry on in battle then we could have executed our plan and they would have proven themselves to you. All I did was a worse job of what Hinata-san could have done her dojutsu could have dispelled the genjutsu quciker than I and her taijutsu is better than mine is by a lot. Shino-san is almost better than me in taijutsu also. Our sparing at the academy has shown that."

"Don't beat yourself up over that Zuko-kun, you three will grow differently and you three will grow together, I am sure that you will be better than the other two at a lot more things. For example, While Hinata-chan may be better at taijutsu than you, you didn't hesitate to attack me, nor did you panic when your plan went awry. Not everything is about being strong in battle. Even compared to Shino, you improved his plan to get me into the trees, and if what he said was true you had noticed my testing and applied that to your tactics. When we train we can find something more suited to you and you can improve that if you would like as well. I have a feeling that you would be good at a lot if you wanted to Zuko-kun."

I smiled at that. "Thank you Kurenai-Sensei. I am glad you will be our Jonin instructor."

Shortly after Shino and Hinata had woken up, I witnessed Kurenai-Sensei pick up both the genin and take them home. Before she left she had told me that missions start in a week and training starts tommorow. I was officially a ninja.


	8. Practice progression Improvement inbound

Team 8. Myself, Hinata, Shino and Kurenai. We hadn't done anything yet but it felt good to have a team and our training was begining today, Kurenai-Sensei wanted us to get to know eachother and develop our skills somewhat before doing any missions as a boundary; to both get us to where she wants us to be in basic knowledge and to help us find some strengths and weakness to work on. We were to meet at Training ground 8, our appointed training field, at 10 am. I was the first one there at five thirty, I was anxious of what exactly to expect from this so I woke earlier than usual and got here quickly; better 3 hours early than one minuet late...

I had decided to practice my chakra sensory with the excessive amount of time I had to wait; with the help of one of the rare books that were about chakra sensory, they were restricted to gennin ninja and above in rank. Meaning that this was the first time I could accsess this material. The book referenced sensory techniques as the continious or pulsating exertion of chakra. Which meant I had to find out how I sensed chakra, did I send out waves of it to detect periodically, which was less effective but would equally use less chakra, or possibly I have my chakra sent out constantly to detect all movement of chakra, while being more effective as you would be able to sense all motion of: say an enemy ninja whereas the pulses would leave 'blind spots' so to speak.

I wanted to see if there were any way to tell what you were more natural at doing (both were possible, but the book said an affinity towards one is common place in sensors and should start with the one they work better with) and there wasn't just a 'How do you feel chakra, the more calm it feels the more likely you are to be in the first catagory' -the book had classed the continious style as the first- 'although if it is more spuradic then it is probably the second catagory.' With this new information I could already tell that I was certainly attuned to the first type, which was bad for me but not if I could increase my reserves substantially. Despite the stereotypical agreements with chakra and gender, I found myself to be an odd case. Most the time males would have better chakra reserves and worse control of that pool and the opposite was typically true with females. It didn't change much, I just had to increase my reserves more than others would, but I would have better mastery of that pool. I then tought about one of my earliest memories when I had sensed Naruto's chakra, which was huge. So it must be hard to not use too much of it. In fact that could be the reason he was bad at certain jutsu. Disregarding my thoughts I turned back to the field, I knew I couldn't sense in the way I wanted to, or more accuratly the way that I was better at. No matter how good naturally you were at something, if you don't have the capabilities to do it then it couldn't be done. With that in mind I thought that I should at least the the other form of sensing. It would be more useful to me at this point anyways.

Gathering myself standing in front of the tree I had to take the brute force approach to start with as I had no technique to work with just yet. I was planning to detect the nature around me, wildlife mainly, I would have to put my hands in a seal to help control my chakra. The book had referenced people doing these techniques without seals however that was more than advanced, showing mastery of chakra sensing, clearly the person stood trying to utilise chakra for sensing (on purpouse) for the first time was not a master. Having the seal aid me in molding my chakra to the forefront of my body ready to have it be sent out in a wave.

I didn't know how much chakra was required so estimating was all I could do and as such a wave of chakra exploded forth from myself and the chakra was visible for a few seconds before dissapearing. How disapointing. I thought I would be able to detect something, of course the possibility of something not being nearby was there but I knew that wasn't the case. I just didn't do it right.

I carried on doing this for the next few hours and broke it up with reading of my book to help me next time I tried to do it. Never being able to detect any chakra. It was only a few hours into this training that I realised that the chakra must be doing something. It just doesn't dissapear or vanish completely, nothing worked like that. Like when you burn some wood; the wood is turned into various gasses or ash. The chakra had to be somewhere or doing something. I checked the chakra sensory book to see if that would provide any insight to this problem I was having. Alas nothing, obviously I was just bad at this. At this point I was just experimenting and doing random things with my chakra to get this mystery solved.

With the progress at a stand still it wasn't long until someone jumped down and spoke to me "Hello Zuko, have you been here long?" Hearing this causes me to look up from the book I had been utilising this morning.

"Kurenai-Sensei, I haven't been here too long I don't think. I prefer getting places earlier is all." Standing up and walking closer to the new arrival I decided to get some insight to today's activites. But before I open my mouth Kurenai gets there first.

"That book you have is about chakra sensory? Is it something you can utilise, very useful to know if you can." Kurenai had seen my book before I pocketed it and her questions had not been what I was expecting, I could technichally use it, but not reliably or much with control. Though reflecting on the past few hours I had been stuck with this entire problem, Kurenai would more likely than not have some insight to this and thus be able to help.

"I can... But I can not do it consciously. I had been reading the book in hopes to progress this skill." I contemplated telling her the pulsing of chakra that should have worked but didn't. Sensing some hesitastion Kurenai-sensei spoke up.

"It seems you want to say more. Zuko if there is something I should know you can say it." With her reassurance I carried on.

"Well there are two ways to sense chakra, one requires more chakra, so I tried the less costly method. However when I pulsed my chakra it didn't work. Referencing the book had no extra insight to this problem. It's somewhat ironic; if I could sense what was happening to the chakra when I do that I could figure it out, yet if I could do that I wouldn't need to do this originally..." I finished my tellings with a light chuckle at what I found to be an annoying situation. Once finished My face fell. I realised that I wasn't the only one who could sense chakra. I see Kurenai's confusion as the expressions of my face drastically change but before she can ask about it I voice my thoughts. "Kurenai-sensei? Can you detect chakra yourself? I realise that if I need to see what happens when I do this but can't then someone who can would be able to assist me here." I peer up at my sensei as she gives a small smile in recognisation.

"Well I can't detect chakra in the way you're asking me to however we know someone who does." I had started to ask who but before I spoke without thinking I had heard the remaning members of our team close in on the location Kurenai and myself were stood in. I looked over and before they got too close I gained recognisation over my features.

Turning towards Kurenai I speak our teamates name "Hinata." To this I recieve an affirmation in the form af a nod.

The named person accompinied by Shino walk up towards us, him, speaking first "I hope we are not late. Because I planned to leave at an appropriate time to avoid that." Hinata stayed quiet after this, leaving Kurenai to reassure them that they were on time. More specifically five minuets prior to being on time. Seems we all have a habit, albeit a good one.

Once pleasantries had been exchanged Kurenai-sensei had gave us tasks to test our capabilites as individuals before anything else. It felt like a more developed version of some physical tests we had done during the academy. Shino was the best of us when it came to pure strength and Hinata domminated when it came to any precision tasks such as throwing items. I was not too far behind them however it was noticable that they were better. When it came to unique abilites that kurenai had asked us about; Shino had used his clan's famous insects and Hinata her buyakugan. When she activated it she had a slight look of confusion and asked why there were a few clusters of chakra not too far away from us. This had all of us look over to were she said the chakra was located, when I looked I remebered this morning and had asked Hinata a question. "Hinata-chan, these clusters... How many are there?"

Her response took a few seconds to come back, she must have been counting them. "There are a-a-approximatly fifteen. It seems t-that some are joining up.." I began to think, these had to be what I released earlier and despite this they were there and hadn't gone away. With this in mind, I wondered if they could be absorbed in any capacity. Kurenai-sensei spoke up after this.

"Well Zuko-kun, is that what you wanted to see?" I nod before turning to Shino.

"Shino-san, is it possible for your alies to absorb the chakra in anyway?" I couldn't gauge his response due to his outfit but he did respond regardless.

"They can. My kikaichuu eat chakra to live, they would be able to take chakra away from inside the body or outside."

I hummed. "Useful..." I still wasn't too sure what this meant. My chakra that was supposed to detect, was instead just waiting around. Our sensei had decided that it was time to get back to our analysis and asked if I had any abilites, since the other two had showed off theirs. Thinking of nothing at all I just shook my head. It was slightly embarrising, the only one in this team who couldn't add anything in terms of unique abilites and being worse than the other two in most aspects.

Sensing my feelings Kurenai put her hand on my shoulder, "there is nothing wrong with that. It means you can fit in anywhere you want, being versitile is potentially more useful than anything else. While Shino's Kikaichuu have huge advantages, he also has less chakra he can use himself, limiting his chakra and jutu pool. Hinata's Buyakugan is very useful but limits her to being very close range to use it affectively and her taijutsu will not develop too much because of this." I get what she was trying to do but I felt it didn't help much.

"Kurenai-sensei, you said you specialize in genjutsu, so what are the pros and cons of that?" I couldn't help but think that if Kurenai wasn't from some hugely known clan and therefore specialised in one of the main three techniques of a ninja then was that as good?

"Well the plus is that I am one of the best in the field of genjutsu and only a few people could out-do my jutsu or put me in one. Also my abilities are somewhat underestimated as quite a few people think that genjutsu is very weak compared to the other forms of techniques, this gives me an edge over those opponents. The downside to only focusing on one field like this is that once someone can counter my genjutsu I will not be as affective and that sometimes Jounin are well known in the elemental nations and because of this they will know me from a glance and expect what I will do, leaving my choices limited to what I haven't practiced as much. Though there are pros and cons to thoes who just utilise one of the techniques, and the same for someone who is equally balanced. Being a ninja isn't always about being flawless but being adaptable to your flaws, if you identify them you can plan for the situations that they will be explotied."

I nodded to this, it made sense but if so what would I do. I wasn't bad at any of the things I did but I wasn't the best. I sighed before I thought too much about it, it seemed most people already knew what they would do. I would think about it another time, I would just fill in what was needed right now.

We carried on practice for a while and started to focus on our weaknesses. For Hinata it was her offensive attacks, she would parry and deflect our hits but rarely takes advantage of that. For Shino it was his speed and movement, Shino kept blocking or using his strength to keep you unable to hit him or pressured from attacking but if you got in his guard or manuvered from his barage then he would be open. I was told to assist them with their improvements, Kurenai said that I had no glaring weaknesses, perhaps increasing stamina and then general physical improvments but nothing to focus on. Kurenai wanted to test us all. However she wasn't getting involved. She wanted to see the improvments that they had been working on and my adaptability, stamina and to see if I could get through their improvments. Unfairly Kurenai decided to have Hinata and Shino fight against me.

I had checked the area we were in before hand and it was mostly flat with a few inconsistancies that are natural in the earth. The trees were a while away, especially in this instance where I wouldn't be able to manuver properly if they co-ordinated attacks well enough. But the pond was close enough that if I could get them close to it then I would have a slight advantage; getting one of them in there would allow a few seconds of offensive on the remaining one. The rules that Kurenai had in place was supposed to put it on a more level playing field. I was the only one allowed to use jutsu. Otherwise only taijutsu. That was the only restriction, also no trying to maim or kill.

I started with my back towards the pond, gladly in my favour too. Shino was slightly slower than Hinata in the burst they took to rush me, It was only by a few seconds that they would be alone in this fight, it would be bad to have Hinata go on the defensive so I allow her to start the assault, I would poke in her guard if she let me and change when Shino got involved.

Once Hinata had reached me Shino was a total of six seconds away. Hinata wasted no time in starting her jabbing, her style of taijutsu would mean I shouldn't just block but mix up the blocks and deflections of her attacks. She tried to strike my abdomen which was bold, It allowed me to swivle away and give a palm to her neck which was exposed due to the lunge she did. I used the counter-strike to back off towards my objective (the pond) and waited for the next move. It was just enough time for Hinata to start moving when Shino caught up and both came at me, Hinata prepared to do the opening attack. I suppose that is so I'll move and then Shino can get me. Agreeing that their plan was what I thought I sprung towards them, the slight shock on Hinata's features told me everything as I lunged towards her, before I got too close I slid under her taking our her legs, It put me away from the pond but I had time to get them there later. I swiftly pick myself up and throw a shuriken at Shino, who thought he could start his assault.

The weapon made him halt and move. Mistake. He was told to use his movement, and now he was stationary, Hinata hadn't gotten up yet so I rushed Shino and vaulted him grabbing his large collar and use the momentem and gravity to take us down to the floor, he couldn't get up as quick as I could leaving me with a breif grace period.

I see Hinata look to where she thought I was and took the opening of disorientation she presented. A palm strike to her back let her fall once more and with this time I use a clone jutsu to create a copy that ran to the pond, while I substituted with a mediocre rock nearer the treelines and hid moving towards the pond as well.

By the time Shino had re-orintated himself Hinata had seen 'me' run towards the pond and persued. Her partner shortly behind. The stuck up a small conversation which I couldn't detect from my actual location. I was all ready and my clone was too. He waited for the two opponents to arrive and then stayed on the defensive. Their attacks consisted of Shino attempting to break the guard and Hinata to input the damage when avaliable. When the clone had dodged enough attacks he jumped in the pond confusing the two. I snuck up on them while they looked away and put a smoke bomb on the floor and pushed Hinata into the pond. Confused Shino turned to me and I landed a quick sucsessive punch to his face before throwing a contact smoke bomb at his feet and continuing my assault. I would alternate my attacks and then roll behind or to his side and continue. Once he grew accustomed to this and started to anticipate and block I moved over to my bomb I had placed before. I was covering it with my body and with the last of the smoke dissipating Hinata dragged herself up from the pond. With their first step towards me I moved my foot behind the bomb and stomped on it to have another plume of smoke cover us. Hinata was prepared to be pushed in again and Shino expected this too, looking at her. To his surprise I tackled Shino's legs and dumped him into the pond. I didn't stop my movements and kept moving towards Hinata who was confused at the lack of contact she expected. I opened up with an axe kick that she couldn't dodge and recoiled from the damage, stepping towards her I kept jabbing at her. The smoke had gone once more yet Shino was taking longer to return. Hinata couldn't take much more of the barrage of jabs and shortly fell from a strike to her throat. Shino had come up by this point but was too late to stop the final attack.

By now it was a one on one and I had just realised how much stamina it had taken, the most being used on tackling Shino but otherwise it was due to quick moves and rapid attacks. "I hadn't expected these tactics from you Zuko-san. Your style keeps changing... But I am not yet defeated." With that he bounds towards me, speed definitely increased. His attacks had to be dodged, parried or deflected blocking would damage me more than it would help me at this point. Shino didn't slow down and I wasn't too sure how long I could keep this up for, I could try head for the treelines now but I might not be able to do so without getting hit. Weighing my options quickly I parried his blow and pushed some distance between us and bolted towards the trees, He was probably near my speed but this distance should give me more than enough to be certain of my succsess. Almost entering the shade of the trees I stumble on a dip in the ground, I rebalance and continue, the stumble allowed me to see that Shino wasn't chasing me as I thought. It was the whisiling of air that caught my attention and I had to roll out of a kunai which would have implanted itself into my chest otherwise. Shino was already in the trees, the kunai came from a branch; I launch one back though it misses and Shino decends the tree he climbed and comes at me from the shade. He must have dashed to the treeline slightly away from my periphial and set up a quick attack. I was now forced to engage in a taijutsu spar with Shino who tanked my hits and used that to hit me, I learned that quickly and it became a wait to look for an opening but Shino was keeping a tight guard and letting speedy punches fly, I would have to anticipate the attack if I wanted to fully finish this fight.

The punch I anticipated came; I grabbed it and tried to jump away letting my legs extend to his chest, while I was airborne Shino shifted slightly and wrapped his ar maround my legs leading me to believe I had hit him, I released his arm and he swung my body down faster than anticipated, leading to my body smashing into the ground and falling limp.

I awoke a short while later and noted that Hinata was gone, but Shino and Kurenai had remained. Noticing my awakening Kurenai speaks up from her location next to me, "Do you feel okay Zuko-kun?" I nodded to answer. "You did well but I see an opportunity to tell you this important lesson I have learnt the hard way; you may think that it was a close match, and it was, but no matter what if it was a real battle and you had lost you would be dead instead of waking up right now. I know that you are both genin and won't be getting into any serious combat for awhile but please try and keep this in mind. Though that said: if you think about it too much then you become unbalanced and paranoid. I have known commrades who have done this, too paralyzed to move, and dead in an instance - I tell you this because I know you two are mature enough to understand this."

I get what Kurenai-sensei is telling us. Though it's clear she isn't certain she knows what she is doing. Slowly getting up I look up at my sensei "I do understand sensei. I didn't want to be a shinobi for an easy life. Also I know people will have it worse than me, but I am not the perfect shinobi either. It's clear to me what being a genin is too there's a reason for genin squads with a jounin leader. Kurenai-sensei you should know that I am willing to train to be able to protect the village with everything I have." By the time I finish Kurenai is smiling and Shino has his gaze studing me.

"That's good to hear Zuko I think you will go far if you're willing to push yourself, and it is my job to help you achieve that." Kurenai-sensei then looks to Shino and adds "You too Shino, the two of you have large amounts of potential dorment within you and even if shinobi life is not as long as other lifestyles you can still become the best at what you want to do." It seems that Kurenai-sensei was made a Jounin instructor for a good reason, she had made me more determined than I had ever been before, and with thoes final words she told us to head home and get ready for more practice tomorrow. No more words were spoken even when Shino and myself walked in the same direction towards our houses until we had to part; reflecting on today and psyched for tomorrow.


	9. Mission

The next two months had been good training and D-rank missions which had not been a problem as they basically acted as our breaks from training and Kurenai-sensei had us do the tasks with a strategy before we started, we would try to make it as efficent and quick as possible and we had until we got to the mission to create the plan. Obviously they weren't too hard or elaborate but it helped us think of the factors avaliable and think quickly. I had rapidly grown towards my squad and spent most of my time with them which is expected between gennin teams and that the three of us had opened up to eachother more and more, our team work and co-ordination had imporoved significantly which had made our sensei happy as well, we even had a photo taken of the four of us and each member had a copy. It felt like a family of sorts and it was the most I had ever had in terms of that, it made me want to protect the village even more; I didn't want to lose this.

Naruto and I hadn't seen much of eachother since graduation and had been busy with his team, even more so that he was currently on a C-rank mission. Team 7 was the only one that had gone on a C-rank out of the graduating squads this year, It didn't bother me however, I would rather focus on training and wait until my team as a whole wanted to go on one. Kurenai-sensei had us doing a D-rank mission and brought up higher ranked missions: "What do you three think about taking on C-rank missions?" We were all doing some weed pulling and close enough to have normal conversations.

I looked up at my teacher to see her expresion and it was one of interigue and evaluation, she did this when poking for information and from what I gathered this question was a front and she had an ulterior motive in asking it, but as always I'll bite. "I think they shouldn't be taken lightly; I don't think I am at a suitable place to take on a C-rank mission..." I look over to Shino and Hinata who seemed to be thinking what to say themselves. I could only guess with my limited time with them both but Hinata would most likely feel the same as me in terms of not having enough strength to do a C-ranking mission but probably wouldn't directly voice that if both Shino and myself wanted to do one. Despite the bonding our team had gone through Hinata still kept more to herself with her opinions and had to be asked more directly if you wanted her to actually say what she actually wanted to say. Meanwhile Shino probably would prefer training more to missions, at least for now. Especially if both Hinata and myself said no to missions, as calm and collected as Shino is he doesn't brag and wouldn't try to make himself seem higher than his peers.

This was fairly accurate as when they both answered in a simillar fashion, Hinata had stated that she didn't want to do a C-rank yet and Shino wanted more practice in his own abilities beforehand. After they gave their answers I smiled, being with these people for such a sort time and I could accurately guess how they would respond to something; it made me feel good about myself, why? I am not sure, but it did.

The D-ranks continued but between the missions I had started thinking about what I would be good at as a ninja, I had picked up slightly on my sensory abilities and I found out that I could send out small pulses by using the help of hand seals rather than just trying to push out chakra like before. The clusters of chakra I still had no idea about but that could wait, I could sense chakra only a small distance, roughly twenty-five meters at the maximum. I figured that I would need more than just sensory techniques and since they aren't that common I would have probably wasted my time presuing it. I had thought about it for some time before coming to Kurenai-sensei with a suggestion. It was not long after one of our D-rank missions and everyone was heading home and I suppose it was obvious that I wanted to ask something since my teacher had looked at me before she would usually leave and asked if anything was wrong.

I looked over to the jonin instructor before speaking up "Yea, I have been thinking about my skills as a shinobi and I wanted to know if you'd help me learn genjutsu." The look that split her face was shock and happiness, eyes lighting up slightly probably wanting to make genjutsu more known.

"Of course I can help you with that Zuko-kun, but you should know that I want you to be fully commited to learning the art; I won't be teaching it to someone who takes it lightly." Despite the scalding nature of her words there was a smile plastered across her face while she talked. I nodded in response, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to learn... "We'll start tommorow then okay? After our missions and this is the point of no return."

The genjutsu training had taken place almost every day with only theory and talking about it, Kurenai had encouraged me to ask all the questions I could think of no matter how little they were or how unrelated they may seem. This was because genjutsu used chakra to affect people, and any questions about people, or chakra or the things that could connect them. The first time she had tought me a genjutsu was one that affected smell, it had very little application but it was to demonstrate how genjutsu worked practically, what the jutsu did was make the affected smell not change, or conversely make there be one smell overpowering. She first used it on me so I could detect the difference and how it works, and then to use it on her.

Once I had used the jutsu on Kurenai-sensei I made the smell of her flowers that was nearby the most prominant smell, and I found one of it's uses then; she had instructed me to make the smell of the tea she had the strongest smell but that would defeat the point of genjutsu and the reaction of the new smell had been such a shock to her that it took her about ten seconds just sitting there thinking about the flowers before she realised what had happened. "Why did you do that?" I wasn't sure if she was proud or dissapointed but I told her regardless.

"I thought it would be more apt to do something you weren't expecting."

She sighed, "Yes you're right. I should have expected that..." Then she looked at the flowers "How would you like to up the training Zuko-kun?"

"If you're willing to teach me Kurenai-sensei then I'm ready to learn." With that we continued to go through our regular routine of theory and small practical genjutsu dispelling. The weekend was when she increased the training. We had started with more jutsu learning, starting with one for each of the base senses and repeating those jutsu, though it had elevated to trying to use these during light spars with my teacher. This was to make it so I could try and catch her of guard like previous; this stacked with the training from our D-ranked had made this task somewhat easier.

It was actually around the time that Naruto had returned from his C-rank that Team 8 decided collectively to go on one, we hadn't even had enough time to catch up on what it was like, the information would have been somewhat helpful, but it would be fine regardless. During each of our spare time we had built up our skills to a point of satisfaction, or at least where the experience of a C-rank would be more appealing than individual progress. We had just entered the mission room where the assignments were given out to the ninja of the village, the person giving out the missions was waiting for Kurenai to request a mission in such a bored manner it made me wonder how he even ended up there.

The mission given to us was to find some bandits and their camp as they had been recently raiding a local village and the village's guards couldn't find them or keep them away. We were to be back within a week as the village was about half a day away (in terms of normal ninja travel). Within the hour we were all ready and mobilising towards our destination. Kurenai gave us some words of advice during our travel "I want you three to know that even if it isn't a requirement of the mission you may have to fight regardless, If it did come to that then you may have to choose who'll survive the fight..." I looked to my side where our instructor was, I know what she was getting at but why beat around the bush? I didn't bring it up as she must have had a reason for doing it. "Also it's getting close to sundown so we'll have to rest slightly outside the village tonight, we can try and spot them moving in or out the village, but if not then we will investigate properly tomorrow."

The setting up of the camp didn't take long and since it was slightly unexpected Kurenai had stayed awake to lookout. The night must have been still as I awoke peacefully and the sun was just rising when I noticed Kurenai in the tree and my team in the same place from when I fell into slumber. I got up and started to stretch and heard the only other person speak "Goodmorning Zuko-kun, you're up early." I continued to wake up while I carried on the conversation.

"Morning to you too sensei. I made it a habbit to wake up early, it would do more good than bad." I had started to read waiting for my fellow genin to wake up too. While reading the conversation progressed.

"That could be true but if your body isn't prepared then it can be very bad, don't push your body if you're tired."

"Sensei, you are aware that you haven't slept yet? I am not going to take a mission lightly, I wouldn't be awake if I couldn't handle it." I heard a laugh after I finished speaking.

"Well I am glad you aren't taking it lightly, but I have completed many C-rank missions before, I am very much used to this. What book are you reading?"

I glanced over towards the tree. "It's about chakra control, and I've been thinking about it could you use chakra to both enhance your physical capibilities?" Asking questions out of the blue had become more common place since starting my genjutsu training but she always answered.

"Yes it is what most people do, it is used in the body flicker technique or in surface walking..." I could see her look at me after replying, she made this habbit of trying to get me to react to things she would do or say, It made no sense to me but I guess it is some training.

"That is probably useful to know, if I could learn that I would..."

"Potentially." That was the only reply before it became a wait for everyone to wake and head into the village.

The wait was short and the walk was quiet, we reached the village within ten minuets after packing all our camping equipment. It was a plain and small locale, with a main street that housed all the venues and inns with the residencies a shortwhile away leading into the small farmlands that grew typical crops found in the land of fire. Kurenai-sensei took us to what looked to be the village's main house, as we approached a young man that looked almost in his twenties came up to us from the house looking not at us but our headbands then once he was directly infront of Kurenai, looking slightly up at her, then met her eyes. "Shinobi-san! You're here to help us?" His eye's had widened slightly when he realised what he said, seeing the answer to his problems. When the lead of our team just nodded her head he grinned "That's great, I am Haruto Sasuke, I am the heir to the village head and I can show you around the place if you need."

The only response he got was "We'll be fine Haruto-san. Thank you but we just need to talk to the head." He nodded and showed us to the man we came to see. As we crowded inside the wooden abode the first thing we saw was an old man behind a podium talking to a small semi-circle of people, they all seemed to be having a meeting when we silently interupted them. Sasuke had started to speak up until the elder at the podium looked over and glared at the disruption.

"Sasuke! I told you that you weren't needed here, and who are these people?" The man all but shouted with the sound resonating off the supports of the building, when the younger of the two tried to retort he was cut off once more. "I don't want to hear your excuses, I'll talk to the strangers. Now off you go!" I looked over to the victim from the corner of my eye and then back to the loudmouth at the opposite side of the room, this guy doesn't seem too happy, said man then looked at our group before using the same tone of voice that he used for Sasuke. "Who are you four and why are you here!" it wasn't a question but a demand, albeit not a threatening one but there was no need to anger this person and Kurenai seemed to feel the same way as she tried to pacify the enraged man.

"Hello there, I am Kurenai Yuhi from Konoha and this is my genin team. We are here because of a mission to locate the bandits that have been terroising the village." There was a short silence that followed as the man digested the information and the other people in the room were thinking of the new arrivals as well. After a few more seconds the aged man beckoned Team 8 over to him.

"I have been waiting for you ninja, I am Haruto Reo and this is my village. I hope you shinobi deal with this quickly! This here is Doku, he saw one of the bandits leaving the village after an attack and can answer questions you have for him." He paused for a few seconds. "Now begone I want this to be delt with." With that a large man within his fourties creak towards us while the others resumed their meeting without the middle-aged male, we all had grouped just outside the house and began our conversation with mainly Kurenai-sensei and Doku-san.

It turns out that the bandits had fled to the west of the town, and once we got to the last sighting according to Doku, it lead into a dense forest that had fairly clear tracks that were poorly covered. Utilising Hinata's byakugan to keep out for any traps that used the obvious tracks as a decoy we followed them from the trees above, the tracks seemed to go on for what seemed like hours which made little sense to me so with that in mind I turned to my sensei and questioned it. "Ne, Sensei I think these tracks are false."

She looked over and called a stop, "Zuko-kun, we have already said they might be to hide traps. So what do you mean?" the confusion was clear in her voice.

"I don't think they are hiding traps sensei, these tracks have been going on too long; we have been told that they raid each night more or less, so how can they be so far out? Especially as their tracks have stopped being as well covered as they were when we started which is normal but the way they were bad at the start and eventually stopped but the tracks kept going. Either the raiders got complacent but then why cover it at all, they could be lazy but they're going and attacking a town that if we believe these tracks is over an hour away by walking so I doubt it is that. The fact is they're probably the opposite of lazy, they set extra tracks each day because these are still fresh... Unless there is a shinobi that uses a genjutsu to make the tracks go on longer than they are? I would think that their camp is either underground slightly or we've just walked past it." After finishing my rambling I found my team looking dumbfounded: Hinata went wide eyed and did a quick hand seal to test my musings, Shino looked around with a slightly more downcast demenor, and Kurenai had shock before doing the same as Hinata - dispelling the jutsu.

"Well done Zuko-kun, I can't belive I didn't notice sooner. Let's quickly backtrack and look for their base so we can report it's location." We all nodded and started moving out. On the way Hinata focused quite intently on the ground moreso than before and Shino was as he was before, except he glanced at me every few minuets. It didn't take long for us to reach an area where the poor track covering had a little anomaly, there were leaves that stacked up slightly more than anywhere else on the trail, Kurenai noticed this first and formost and moved the foliage out of the way on instinct. This revealed a hatch that was concealed by a natural tree which was destroyed and hollowed leaving just the shell of a trunk that had the front non-existant. Looking over at the Jounin for answers on this odd occurence when she caught my gaze she checked Shino and Hinata before speaking out loud for all of us. "These are old shelters used in the second shinobi war, and if they survived then the third too. These originally had been to house inhabitants of villages during a blitz attack or something like that, however overtime they became less used and an ample place for nukenin or bandits to use. Though they are so old and we don't know, usually, what ones have been attacked or not. The ones that have been attacked are more likely to crumble and cave in, and it seems like this is one of them." She then turned to us after opening the hatch. "We first need to check what's down there, Hinata-chan does your Byakugan have enough range to see anyone down there?" The shy girl in question looked directly into the trapdoor the pupiless eyes buldging in concentration it only lasted a short time then the focus came back to her deflated she shook her head at the one that asked her to do this task. "That's fine Hinata-chan, don't worry. We'll have to go down and check it out then but not all of us Hinata-chan, Shino-kun you two stay here and keep an eye out for anything that could come just incase. Zuko-kun you'll be coming down with me, we just need to do the mission objective so just confirm if they're down here and if not then we leave as quick as we can and investigate more. Got it?" With a chourse of 'Hai' Kurenai and myself had hoisted ourselves down and before we ventured into the dark Kurenai passed me a kunai and a thread of chakra "Burry the kunai and thread this through it, this will stop us from getting lost at any point."

When the light could not reach us as we pressed farther into the system sensei utilised a jutsu that illuminated our path, finding an open area we took the liberty to assess our surroundings. The structure was burrowed down and then expanded outwards into a full room that started elevated and lowered into a main facility where we heard robust chatter and laughter. Both Kurenai and I slid over silently peering over the edge of the ledge to see a rather ample group of men most with swords attached to them in some capacity and the smell of alcohol streched thick in the dusty air, this was certainly them, close enough to keep constant on the village and discrete enough to be reckless and loud. Kurenai patted my shoulder and we started to move away and retreat to the enterance following the chakra string made beforehand.

Once reaching the surface we saw Hinata on the floor and Shino trying to protect himself from an unkown person about to kick through Shino's guard. Kurenai was gone in an instant and the enemy had suddenly stopped for a second before jumping away before a familiar black and white slashed down on that exact position. I went up to both Shino and Kurenai who was now looking at the newcomer that had attacked "Konoha shinobi... You don't seem tough at all, it'd be nice to have some trophies. Hey listen up you weaklings! I'm gonna kill you all now, don't make this too boring at the least." This man who had a plain and arrogant voice had vanished from my sight and suddenly a series of clashes were resonating around as Kurenai engaged this rougish shinobi, their level of skill was far higher than mine to get involved in this fight would be more of a hinderance to our guardian than a help. Shino had a small stream of insects flowing out of his sleeve while looking onwards clearly looking to take advantage of this situation if possible. I glance over to Hinata who seems to be knocked out and most likely safe for now. I pull out a kunai for what it's worth, rather having some steel in hand than nothing.

The flurry of unfollowable attacks continue for a short time until they stop locked into place with their weapons interlocked fighting to overpower. They seem on even footing in this regard and it comes as a shock to the enemy when some bugs start to drain his chakra and in his brief moment of disorrientation Kurenai strikes and kicks him far into a tree next to me. He is stunned for this second, and I react on instinct, the threat is this close to me and he can battle on par with Kurenai in speed and strength. I waste little time on preying on this vunrebility as I lunge with my brandished blade aiming for his throat. His eyes shift to me as he regains awareness of his surroundings but by that time it is too late to recover and escape, for the skin is already tearing around my kunai; short gurgles escape after a pained grunt while this man looks at me but his eyes gloss over and become hazy it seems like he is looking through me more than at me. But it does not change anything. This person was an enemy and tried to kill my team, now we can complete the mission. I trudge the weapon from the chilling corpse then turn to see Kurenai-sensei analyse me as Shino is picking up Hinata so we can carry her away.

I keep an impassive face as I close in on the other members of my team, sensei speaking up before we depart. "Zuko, are you alright? You did a good job. You too Shino, that was a good plan to distract him." We both nod in response before Kurenai gave out the order to leave quickly. "We'll head back and report to the villiage before departing to Konoha, this mission is practically done."

The ninja we had encountered was not mentioned anymore while we talked to Haruto, although he had demand that we go and kill the bandits after finding them he was informed by Kurenai that it was not in the mission to go and kill them all but to report where they were and nothing more. This didn't seem to discourage Haruto from shouting at us to kill them as ninja kill people, he would just have to send out another mission to Konoha if they wanted ninja to kill the bandits. This was the way the world worked, if you wanted something done pay money; if you wanted extra you pay more money. Despite all the begrudging done by the small village we had left on our way without a problem. Taking half of the remaining day to get a decent location for a overnight camp. Setting it up didn't take long after we were tasked by our jounin sensei to contribute to the camp, Kurenai had obviously took this time to distract us as she had us using the jutsu for igniting a campfire, it was simple and acted as a catalyst for any fuel and igniter you had on the campfire. Once some quick hunting supplied us with food for the evening, not taking long for everyone to be settled and with little conversation about the events of the day which followed into Kurenai-sensei asking to talk to me while the other two went to sleep.

The embers of the campfire dying down when Kurenai decided to start the conversation. "I want to make sure you're alright after having your first kill, It's something everyone has, me included." I look into her eyes and see the light gleeming off them.

"Thank you sensei, I am fine. I was fully aware of what this life entailed. If I hadn't of killed him when I had the chance then he could have killed us, with no remorse. If he had gained the upper hand in the fight with you and won: me and Shino would not have stood much chance. Kurenai-sensei, I wouldn't hesitiate to save team 8."

She nodded in contemplation "You did well, I see great potential in that attitude, just make sure you are really okay. Now get some sleep, I'll keep watch for now." With a quick confirmation I was off to sleep.


	10. Competitive Training

After our mission we quickly took to training and improving for awhile, occassional D ranked missions to fill the week up. On days when Hinata and Shino were doing training with their families Kurenai-sensei would help me improve my genjutsu while speaking to me about things I would like to do to help the team. It had started with talk of using kenjutsu, while Hinata would utilise gentle fist taijutsu, Shino using many clan jutsu, I would fill the distance with a sword using speed to assist either of my teamates. However a one-trick-pony doesn't last long. Kurenai was planning on having Hinata learn some ranged jutsu or making the most of her dojutsu and help her take up shurikenjutsu, while Shino would get help in his taijutsu and potentially expand his own jutsu range. Leaving me to make up for any other weaknesses, my apptitude for genjutsu and my small desire for fuinjutsu being some strong points to branch from.

While talking about having Shino and Hinata use more jutsu Kurenai-sensei decided to confirm her thoughts as many clans have a specific elemental chakra nature that is most common in the clan members. With both being prodominantly earth style users, she expected both Shino and Hinata to have that, yet only shino displayed having that chakra nature when we were given chakra paper, Hinata on the other hand showed a fire type chakra which was the next most likely chakra nature to have due to being a long standing resident of Konoha or more generally the land of fire.

My chakra nature was a surprise to me: I pressed my chakra into the paper and watched as it cut in half. Wind. the least common type in the land of fire, meaning that there would be little help to learn many jutsu. Hope was not lost entirely though, there were plenty of books and scrolls to help with learning the chakra manipulation and applications of the chakra nature. Though that would have to wait, Kurenai-sensei made it clear that even she took a few months of training her chakra to be able to use fire jutsu. Taking time to become proficient in using as little chakra as possible while also molding it correctly. This is when we were taught the surface climbing technique, using chakra to climb surfaces such as trees or walls. This would allow us to build up chakra while also helping us to use the smallest amount.

One day when it was just me and Kurenai we found ourselves in a weapon store looking for an appropriate weapon to start practicing with. Having a look at the different choices and styles of them. For my growing height we discussed the avaliable weapons, "A katana would be too long, chain and sickle wouldn't be what we're looking for... Ah of course! Here Zuko, have a feel for this tanto." I was following Kurenai-sensei as she observed the weapons mumbling to herself. Responding to her request I held the tanto by the hilt waving it around; it was light but had weight to it. I swiped it around gaining a small smile before looking back to my sensei, to see a smirk lining her face. "I take it that'll do?" I coughed lightly before nodding.

"It fits well, almost natural. Domo arigato Sensei." I was estatic for this gift. It would go a long way, for this I was greatful.

Training to use the tanto was frequent I had wanted to kill two birds with one kunai so I tried to do my kenjutsu training while tree walking. It was hard at first but a few weeks and it was little to no bother. We had all increased drastically, gaining great team synergy and covering our weaknesses while expanding our personal skills. Kurenai-sensei decided it was time for us to learn the water walking technique, similar but more advanced to the previous technique. Despite this higher difficulty we took roughly the same time to become proficent in the jutsu. Proud with out progress in such a short time we were allowed to ask for something as a reward: Hinata requested us all go for a meal together, which was typical of her, Hinata was a very caring comrade, always wanting to bring us closer together whenever possible, even at her own expense. The chance to get something for herself cast-away for the team. Shino had asked if Kurenai would consider more C ranked missions so we can gain experience and flesh out our training, I agreed with this whole-heartedly which happens a lot with Shino and I, wanting to better the team through what was nessesary, but Shino wouldn't demand it. When it came to me I asked Kurenai to teach us the body flicker technique, utilising chakra you would be able to move across distances very rapidly, almost seeming like you don't physically move the distance but instead teleport. While the technique is hard to use in combat due to the concentration needed so you don't hit something it is a useful jutsu regardless, one that I believe would help the team tremendiously.

Kurenai-sensei complied with our requests, teaching us the shunshin while giving a warning that the further the distances traveled the more chakra would be required. Then deciding that we would go out to eat as a team two times a week. The following day we had a new C-rank mission. True to her word Kurenai was proud of us.

The C rank mission was to deliever a scroll (the contents of which were not disclosed to us) to the border of the land of fire and the land of wind: which was mostly a aird desert that hosted the village hidden in the sands somewhere within it's bowels. The mission allowed us to try and perfect our use of the shunshin to some extent though Kurenai-sensei would not allow us to use much chakra as there was still a risk of attack, however low that may be.

The trip would take a grand total of three days, crossing through the land of rivers to get to the land of wind's border and drop off the scroll to then return. The travel was quiet for the most part, we had encountered a small group of bandits who were overconfidant in their abilities, shortly after arriving in the land of rivers they had accosted us, demanding money and valuables. They sadly didn't even see Shino, Hinata and I use the clone jutsu to flank them and knock three unconcious before the last two turned to face us, leaving their backs open for Kurenai to do the same as we had. The interuption wasn't even long enough for the duration of the trip to be extended.

When we had eventually reached the outpost for our border patrol Kurenai had a short conversation with the posted konoha shinobi, asking if there was anything that needed to be reported to lord third when we returned. I could slightly hear the conversation as we stood not too far away, they had said that there wasn't anything to report however there seemed to be a change in behaviour in the Wind country's border patrol: they seemed to be somewhat more distant and there was a lack of soldiers that they had seen, meaning that either they had other priorities which was more likely as they were allies with Konoha and by extension the land of fire, or they have plans that would involve more military personnel which is more worrying.

The trip back was even less eventful and before we knew it team 8 was back to training and every other week we would do a C-rank that never took more than four days, always giving us more field experience and steadily gaining confidence in battle and mission etiquette.

With each of our training progressing and occasional sparring between Hinata, Shino, myself and sometimes Kurenai herself. Each time would be under different conditions or scenarios: Team 8 working on combat team-effectiveness against Kurenai-sensei; Shino against Hinata and myself, and each variations of this; working to overcome situations where you are disadvantaged. These continued training sessions and missions had left little time for social interactions, though that didn't ever bother me at all, so it came as a surprise when the location of our usual training ground was occupied by the other two graduating teams, both team 7 and 10 talking ambiently with all three sensei taking a quick glance over to the newest arrivals.

Team 8 joined in the group of shinobi as the others noticed them and greetings became directed at us, though before anything became too overwhelming another voice spoke up. "Great, now that we're all here we can get started." As Kakashi started to speak, before he could fully explain anything a voice bursted up interrupting instantly.

"Hey Kaka-sensei! What are we doing anyways?" Naruto voiced loudly earning a bored sigh from said sensei before he carried on talking.

"As I was about to explain Naruto, we are all here to do something different. After these few months that you have all been genin, you have not had much of a chance to get together since and we have decided that you should fight eachother; see who has the strongest team." This explanation was given with some hidden mirth in his voice. The tall Jounin looked over to his side with his lone eye expecting his student to speak up.

"Troublesome... Is this why we had to come out here this early?" This lackluster drone came from the least expected person, Shikamaru was seemingly fighting off the urge to fall asleep especially after expending that much energy speaking aloud. The reaction from Kakashi, as he realised his boisturous student wasn't the first to remark, was quickly reinged in and only after that his prediction came to fruition.

"Hehe I'm gonna win this thing no problem!" Almost seemingly naruto had been hit on the head by Sakura whilst Sasuke snorted as he felt that the words were empty. The natural events of it all made it seem almost practiced, though I new better than that.

The outburst caused kakashi to speak up to correct the audatious claim, somewhat. "Well you guys aren't doing this a little differently. We've got your names in this convinient little pouch, conveniently provided by my little Naru-chan" a certain naruto was frantically looking for his now gone wallet. "and we'll be temporarily re-aranging your teams for the day. Now who'd like to go first?" Other than the resident orange/blond practically vibrating in anticipation no one seem to be particually willing to be first. Though it seems that today was supposed to be all about out of our depth.

"Zuko, you first." Thanks sensei... Why did she pick me to go first? Yet why did it matter moreso. I suppose because this moment, all of the people from the academy being together it felt more akin to being childeren and there's an unspoken pressure around. But to a shinobi? That should be trivial. With only a moment of hesitation I walk over to the awaiting pouch, pulling out a name.

"Sasuke." I look over to the stoic uchiha and he was almost disinterested in the entire thing barely glancing when I called his name. They then had Sasuke come over and pick the next one, calling out Choji's name. When he joined us he looked slightly uncomfortable between the disgruntled rookie of the year and myself, completely average and neutral, just with a weapon strapped on my back. Afterwords Choji had called out Naruto's name and he jumped over exclaming his excitment as he then pulled from his wallet. The next name was Hinata, taking her time picking a name and making her way beside Naruto. Their last team member being Shikamaru, practically dragging himself over to his location. The last three people being Ino, Sakura and Shino. While the latter was perfectly fine the former two felt more like they had the short end of the stick.

"Now that's all settled you have fifteen minuets to prepare for the fight but you can't leave this training ground." Asuma took the stage with our last words before competition started. Sasuke quickly turned and moved out of the eye of the other combatants, retaliating to this I call Choji to follow in swift persuit making it deep enough into the foliage that we'd caught up to sasuke, who was sitting in the tree. Looking up to the last loyal Uchiha I decided to speak up about battle strategy.

"So, Sasuke, are you willing to command this unit so we can effectively win today?" He looked slightly down from his position before responding.

"Who else would? I had planned to deal with them all myself but if you two can take out the less threatening members while I focus their stongest it will all be less annoying." Nodding in agreement I continued.

"I would say Shino was the stongest of his team... However I am not sure about the last team, all their members are good. Any ideas Taichou?" While the talking was going on Choji was somewhat anxiously looking around yet Sasuke seemed unbothered.

Though not unbothered by calling him captain as his eye twitched slightly "I would say that Naruto is the strongest. But You'd probably say Hinata is while Choji would say Shikamaru. In that case I'll fight Naruto and Zuko will fight Shikamaru, leaving Hinata to you Choji." It was sound logic, Sasuke knew what Naruto was like the most, while Choji was a friend of Shikamaru's so they'd not fight normally. While Hinata would best me easily in combat. With that all sorted I had one last question to ask.

"Sasuke-Taichou, are we going to be aggressive? With both you and Choji being heavy hitters it might work in our advantage, though Shino or Shikamaru may use that against us by fortifying their positions." In response I got a smirk and a nod.

"They can fortify all they want I'll run through them anyways, Shino is the first target." With that we set off with about a minuet spare before the activity started.

Trying to sneak up on Shino was hard. He used his clan's techniques to put a perimiter around any area he was in and could basically be told of any disturbances that occured, this in turn made it hard to sneak up on his two team-members in addition. Though we weren't exactly sneaking... That's what we wanted them to believe; running straight at them with the bushin jutsu to alert Shino, allowing us to get past his insect sensors and prepare an assault on them. There wasn't much time that this would give us however, because the normal clone jutsu isn't solid in much of anyway (almost a genjutsu some could debate) the moment they were engaged or disturbed the veil would be lifted and we would have to strike then while shock was assisting us. The moment the clones got in sight of Shino, Sakura and Ino, a torrent of bugs that looked like a wave of black mass completely smothered them: the signal. Springing into action as a result Choji and I tried to colide into our opponents, Ino being my enemy in this instance had dodged backwards before seeing who attacked properly. In retrospect having Sasuke fight these two on his own while Choji and I dealt with Shino may have been better, Sakura and Ino wouldn't be able to fight Sasuke in anyway, essensially making it a three on one. But alas It was Ino vs myself and I was not going to let her have her bearings.

The young Yamanaka landed on her feet after the initial dodge, only to trust reflexes as I barrelled on with a flurry of attacks which was wearing her down quickly, obviously never having to dodge this much before. The slip-up was inevitable as a rookie gennin but eventually Ino found a fist in direct correlation with her cheek and subsequently her chest getting acquainted with my foot. Leaving her heavily out of breath and a huffing mess on the floor. Putting a kunai to her neck she weakly gave her surrender.

Making certain that I had won before I surveyed the fight, Choji had barreled through Sakura leaving her unconscious and unable to fight; Sasuke was trying to get the upper hand on Shino getting solid hits in wasn't too much of a problem, however everytime he did Shino would be able to place more insects on his body. Fighting Shino first was a double edged sword. If we fought the others first, we may have had less chakra making it easier to drain what was left. But fighting first made it so he could take our chakra before fighting the others. Either way Sasuke could use some assistance but getting close would interfere with his fighting. With that in mind I call for Choji and myself to offer fire support.

Shino only had one real option to keep in the fight at this point. Sending his jutsu our way leaving taijutsu combat with Sasuke. Though evading them was easier for me than Choji it left enough for Sasuke to connect a perfect uppercut to Shino's chin putting him into a little sleep.

This leaves only one group. "This is going well so far." Speaking up while trying to intercept the last team. Recieving a nod and Choji's small cheer.

Tree hopping across the area to find our targets didn't take long, in fact they were in the open. Shikamaru stood in the middle, Naruto to his right and Hinata on the left. That would be easy enough. However a rough count of 50 Naruto's stood their as well. Coming to a stop just before the tree line Sasuke spoke up "Choji. You're taking out all those clones. They're not regular bushin, these have physical impact. Zuko you and I will take Hinata and Shikamaru. Naruto, he's unpredictable, if he goes to help his clones then he's yours Choji... If he comes at us Zuko, you take him out." With that said he looked at us both and in turn we give an affirmative.

The three of us bombard the field with smoke bombs as cover for Choji's human bolder technique. Making his movements unknown to everyone. Since Choji has so many targets but couldn't control his direction in his bolder form this makes the best tactic. Sasuke and I skirt around the clearing before darting towards the middle, into the smoke.

Our first attacks were concealed. Shikamaru taking a fist from me and Hinata taking a hit from Sasuke. By now we could see eachother, Hinata tried running towards me as Shikamaru tried to create distance from us. Naruto started going towards Sasuke. Before Hinata got to me she was intercepted by Sasuke and forced into combat with him while I leapt at Naruto.

The surprise by this was short lived and his smile was wide as his eyes set themselves on me. "Zuko! This is gonna be fun. But I'm not going easy on you." Without another word punches flew at me with speed I wasn't prepared for. Unable to dodge the first barrage I resorted to blocking most of the attacks, they had serious force behind them but I could take it. Seeing a change in his stance I decide to flick out a kunai and side swipe as I move away, the close encounter caused the blade to grace Naruto's forearm slicing the clothes leaving a fine red scratch.

With a new position I step into Naruto causing his punch to go over my body, eyes narrowing as I spin the kunai to point up at the sky with the lunge following after it. My opponent bends backwards in reflex before countering with a kick to the head which makes me bounce away. Landing crudely on the floor. Getting up before further harm could occur.

A quick glance at Sasuke shows that his fight is going fairly evenly. His taijutsu keeping Hinata from dominating and reflexes from Shikamaru's many ranged attacks.

By now Naruto had regained his senses and carried on running at me. Collecting myself into a stance to start exchanging blows. Naruto had more power but I had the reflexes to deflect most attacks. Though his speed meant that I couldn't properly counter offensive to his onslaught. Barely five minutes of exchanging like this caused me to slip up and a punch to the side of the head knocked me out cold.

( **Authors note: Hey! I have found writing this in first person annoying and harder than needed. Thus from now on It'll be in the Third Person. Hopefully with this I can make everything better. Thank you.)**


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